What Once Was
by rocketraccoon18
Summary: It was supposed to be a simple mission: In and out. But then Rocket met someone he had hoped was gone for good.
1. Chapter 1: A Plan gone Wrong

**Disclaimer: GOTG Belongs to Marvel Entertainment I own nothing but a wish to write.**

Chapter 1

A Plan gone wrong

"We need you to find a Data-Case." Nova Prime asked "We've tracked it to a Space Station on the edge of the Cephalon system. The Case contains highly sensitive information." "How was it taken then? If it's so important, why was it not guarded better?" Peter Quill, Who was also known as Star-Lord, asked. "It was an inside job we caught the thief we just need the case back. Since the Nova Corps has no jurisdiction in Cephalon I'm sending you Guardians to retrieve the Case. The Case's tracking number is 10.8200 that will lead you to it. Report back to me when you have it or if something should go wrong. Nova Prime out." the Com-Pad screen went black. "Team meeting now!" Peter yelled.

Fifteen minutes later, Peter, Drax, Gamora, Rocket and Groot, who was still growing back from his near death on Xandar, were all assembled in the main room of the ship. Perter was standing, he was leaning against the wall near to the cockpit. Gamora was sitting down on one of the two benches that were on either side of the room. Drax was sitting down on the opposite bench one of his knives in his hand. Rocket had climbed up onto the table and was sitting down cross-legged on it. Groot had been placed beside him. Rocket looked over at Peter. "So why we here jerk?" Peter sighed "Well furface I'm going to tell you. We've been hired to find a Data-Case that was stolen from Nova and taken to a Space Station in Cephalon. You guys up for that?" he asked the rest of the team. "How are we going to find this Data-Case and when we do how are we going to get it back?" Gamora asked looking over at Rocket. "I'll think of something by the time we get there. Which is when Quill?" Peter turned and walked back into the cockpit, he pressed a few buttons on the navigation console and pulled up the information. "We'll be there in about an hour. That enough time for you?" He yelled back at Rocket. "Of course it'll be enough Quill! It's all we got."

Thirty minutes in and Rocket had a plan, He set everyone down and outlined the plan: "So it's simple ya see. We beam Drax and Gamora into the weapon room and both of ya will make your way to the main hanger and cause a distraction. Meanwhile me 'n Quill will get inta position. Quill you'll get to the vault where they're holden' the case. There will be a lot of security in place so I'll make my way to the main control deck I'll deactivate the security, then hack into the power control and cause the core to overload." He grins "Hell I might even tell the weapon systems to shoot each other. Ain't no such thing as too many fireworks in my opinion. Then we get back to Xandar hand over the Case and get paid. That sound good?" He looked at the rest of the team. "I am Groot?" Rocket looked down at the young tree. "Well buddy, I thought you could sit here and guard the ship." Groot smiled at the raccoon and sat up a bit taller. "I am Groot!" "Good so what do the rest of ya think?" "Sounds good, Though why do Drax and Gamora get all the fun?" Peter complained. Rocket sighed and looked over at the human. "What do ya think the Vault is just gonna be un-guarded? Quit your whining Humie and just follow the plan." Rocket hopped down off the table, grabbed Groot and walked back to their shared room. "We'll be there in about twenty minutes. So I suggest you guys get ready." He says as he walks away.

Peter turns and goes into the cockpit, he sits down in the pilot's seat He picks up his Walkman from the console. He puts on the headphones and flips on his "Awesome Mix" he sits there bobbing his head in time with the music and watching out the window. Drax took the time to re-sharpen and polish his knives. Gamora went to her room and went over her weaponry, Once she was satisfied that everything was in order. She knelt down on her floor and began to meditate. Rocket sat Groot down on the small table by his bed. He took out a tablet and powered it on and opens a program. "This oughta work." he mumbled "I am Groot?" "Oh, it's that hacking program I wrote for that one job... Remember? The one where we had to break into that mobsters house? Well anyway, I'm going to be using it to hack the stations mainframe." He took the tablet and transferred the program to a Holopad. Which he folded and put in one of the pockets on his belt. He walked across the room and opened a cabinet that he used as a weapon locker. He takes out two pistols and holsters them. He turns to go then pauses and grabs a silver disk from the cabinet, he clips it onto his belt, grabs Groot and walks out to the main room. The others are already there, Peter looks at each one of them, then grins, "Let's go get that case!"

There was a bright flash of light and Peter found himself in one of the brightly lit hallways. He blinked and turned to look at Rocket who was standing beside him grinning "Well that worked didn't it eh? Star-Dork?" Peter reached up and pressed the button on his earpiece. With a series of faint clicking sounds his mask formed around his face. "Yeah, it did work considering you built that device from scrap and pieces of MY ship." He started walking down one of the hallways and Rocket followed. "Hey Pete you know what to do right ya won't flark everything up like ya did last time will ya?" Rocket asked still grinning up at him. Peter sighed "You're never going to let me live that down are you?" "Nope, I ain't that's one of the reasons why I'm still here. Without me, who would remind you of all your flark ups? Anyways, this is where we split ways. You just keep going down this hallway and kill anything that tries to stop you. Sound easy enough for ya?" Peter turned to the right and started walking "Yeah, sounds good... Meet you back in the Main Hanger in what twenty... Twenty-five minutes?" "I hope it's less than that Star-Dork." Peter kept walking towards the Vault room.

Rocket kept walking till he came to one of the elevators that would take him to the Control Deck. He reached up pressing the 'up' button with the tip of his claw. With a hiss the doors opened Rocket stepped in he pulled out the hacking unit, and with a few quick keystrokes the lift begins to move up to the highest floor. "Damn buttons always up too high." He grumbles. He un-clips the grenade from his belt and holding down the safety button he typed in the six digit activation code with quick practiced movements. 8,9,1,6,1,3. He held the grenade in one paw and his pistol in the other. The doors opened, he tossed the grenade into the center of the room and stepped to the side as the men inside the room fired their bullets hitting the back wall of the elevator. A loud popping sound was followed by a bright white light that filled the room. Rocket stepped in, He drew the other pistol and fired at two of the soldiers. Bolts of bright green energy slammed into their chests sending them flying back as seven inch holes were burned through them. Rocket laughed as he kept firing and soon the room was empty except for fifteen corpses and the raccoon who looked around the room "Murdered ya'll." He walked to one of the only computers in the room that wasn't damaged in the fight. Humming quietly to himself. He removed a panel from the computer he looked at it for a short time then nodded and set to work hardwiring the hacking unit to the computer. After about a minute of dealing with wires and typing he pressed his earpiece "Quill ya there?" "I'm here." "Security is down and the doors are unlocked, you're free to grab the Case." "Good job Rocket, Set the timer for fifteen minutes. That should give us time to fight our way to the main hanger and get out of here." "Sounds good Quill, Rocket out." He pressed the button on his earpiece ending the connection. He set to work hacking into the automated missile defense systems while trapping the counter hacking measures and hacking into the power management system. In seven minutes he finished and pressed a button on his earpiece switching it to the team frequency "Team we've got about fifteen minutes to get out of here. I'll meet ya there Rocket out." He began disconnecting the hacking unit carefully removing various wires. "Your beautiful, More perfect, then you were." said a voice. Rocket stopped instantly his paws dropping to the pistols on the floor. That voice was just as calm, quiet and repulsive as he remembered. "Quore.." He growled "I thought you were dead." He turned to face the man who had caused him so much pain. Quore was tall, thin and pale. His white hair hung down to his shoulders. Four thin scars ran down from the right side of his forehead they curved running down over his right eye before curving and ending on his jawline. He stood in the doorway holding his hands behind his back "I was dead, but due to the miracles of medical science, A lot of which was tested on yo..." With a snarl Rocket fired both pistols at the man. The energy hit and absorbed into a shield which shimmered slightly. Quore grinned at the raccoon. Rocket felt a sense of dread slowly wash over him "Asgardian shield tech.. It's going to take a lot more than that to break it." Quore moved closer to Rocket keeping his hands behind his back out of Rocket's sight. "As I was saying...Modern science brought me back and now I can take you back. We've searched for you for a long time and now we have you back." Rocket's paw went down to the teleport device on his belt. Quore moved quickly faster then he should have been able to and punched Rocket in the face. Rocket let out a small squeak of pain and surprise. He snapped his teeth at Quore who pulled back and took the gun he was holding in his other hand out from behind his back. He pointed it at Rocket and fired. Rocket saw a bright flash of light and pain coursed through him. He felt his body go numb as the implants were forcibly shut down.. As the blackness closed in he saw Quore standing over him grinning that false grin Rocket saw in his nightmares. "I have you back 89P13." He heard Quore laughing and then everything went black...


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Peter walked down the hallway humming one of the songs from his mix-tape quietly to himself, he kept his hand near his holster. He turned the corner and nearly walked into a group of guards he stumbled back.  
"Oh... Um, Is this the way to the vault? Cause I was just gonna-"  
He drew both his pistols and fired twice in quick succession the bolts of electricity hit two of the soldiers in the chest they dropped writhing on the ground as electricity coursed over and through them. A movement caught his eye and he ducked as a bolt of energy hit the wall where his head had been. He aimed and fired, dropping the soldier, he stood up and continued walking.  
"Quill ya there?" Rocket's voice came through his earpiece.  
"I'm here." he answered.  
"Security's down an the doors are unlocked, Ya can get the Case."  
Peter turned down another hallway and kept walking "Good job Rocket. Set the timer for..."  
He did a few quick calculations in his head...  
"fifteen minutes. That should give us enough time to fight our way to the Main Hanger and get the hell outa here. "  
"Sounds good Quill, Rocket out."  
There was a faint click as the connection was ended. He continued walking and came to a large door.  
"Well, that must be it."  
He grabbed the handle and pulled the door open. He walked in, the Case was sitting on a table in the middle of the room.  
"Seriously? That's it?" He said to himself. He grabbed the case and walked out of the room.

"Team," Rocket said, "We've got about fifteen minutes to get outta here. I'll meet ya in the Hanger."  
Peter began jogging back the way he came, He stopped at one of the elevators. He pushed the button to take him to the Main Hanger. In two minutes he was in the Hanger, Smoke filled the room, he reached up to his mask controls and switched it to Thermal-Vision. He saw what could only be Drax and Gamora standing among a pile of dead soldiers. He jogged over to them "Hey guys, I got the Case, Where's Rocket?"  
Drax turned to him "The small one has not returned."  
Peter sighed "Alright then, we'll just have to wait for him."  
Peter motioned for the others to follow and he quickly walked over to the Hanger's main airlock controls. He activated his Comm unit "Groot? I need you to activate the auto-pilot system and press the green button. Can you do that for me buddy?"  
There was a pause long enough for Peter to worry that maybe the soldiers had somehow jammed the Comms but then he heard the tree creature's small voice.  
"I am Groot."  
he sighed quietly with relief "I hope that was a yes." he said as he opened the main airlock control panel. He stood there staring at the mess of buttons, wires and switches. "Where is Rocket when you need him." he muttered, He looked at the writing on the inside of the panel and sighed "I can't read this."  
Gamora moved over and took a look at the series of glyphs that covered the inside of the panel  
"It's Badoon." she said matter-of-factly.  
After studying the chart on the panel she flipped two switches and pressed a button the Hanger's large main door opened, There was a slight pull as the artificial atmosphere was sucked out into space before the shielding around the door activated.

With a whooshing sound the Milano flew in and landed in the middle of the Hanger. Peter jogged over, with the others following. He pressed his hand against the Bio-Lock scanner pad and the rear ramp lowered down. Peter checked his wrist timer: 09:43, Rocket had better hurry up. He thought as he looked around the Hanger. He turned and walked through the ship and into the cockpit. He flipped the ship's Comm station on and grabbed the transmitter.  
"Rocket you better hurry up man. We've got nine minutes and... Twenty... Five seconds left on that timer. You need to get here or we won't be able to get away in time."  
static buzzed through the speakers.  
"Rocket? Respond." more static. "Rocket, Dude, this ain't funny respond."  
Gamora walked in from below deck. "Peter what's wrong?"  
he sighed "Rocket's not answering his Comm."  
He pressed a button on one of the data-pads nearby. A screen came up with indicator symbols beside each of their names Rocket's Comm was disabled. Gamora took the screen and began rapidly typing.  
"Hey, I was using that!" Peter complained.  
"Yes, but given our lack of time we need someone who can actually type." Gamora said without looking up  
"I CAN type!"  
"Yes you can but you are also slow and as I have said we are short on time." she stopped talking and turned the screen so he could see. She had pulled up the Bio-Tracker.

Everything looked normal, Gamora's pulse and breathing were normal. So was Drax's and Groot... Well, he was just Groot. Peter noticed his own heart rate was slightly elevated.. But that was to be expected, They WERE inside a station after all that was going to explode. And on top of that Rocket wasn't answering his Comm. He felt his heart drop when he noticed Rocket's Bio's: They were normal... If he was unconscious that is.  
"Oh shit!, We've gotta go get him!"  
Peter jumped out of his chair and began jogging back to the ship's ramp.  
"Peter wait!" He stopped and turned.  
"What Gamora?"  
"The tracker says he's moving."  
"Moving where?"  
Gamora sighed "I don't know, something is interfering with the scanners. I can't get a location on him, But he is moving."  
Peter sighed. Why the hell does nothing go according to plan? He thought.  
Then an idea slipped into his mind. He walked back to the cockpit, sat down, opened the Communicator Control program and activated Rocket's Comm.

A low pulsing rumble could be heard. Out of the corner of his eye Peter saw Gamora grab a Data-Pad and begin rapidly typing. The sound grew in pitch and speed, Then the Connection with the Comm cut out. Peter looked over at Gamora.  
"What the hell was that?"  
She answered without looking up. "It was a ship going into hyper-drive."  
Peter sat up and grabbed the controls. "We could catch up to the ship, Attack it and get Rocket back."  
Gamora looked at him. "Yes, we could do that, But we don't know who took him. Or where they are headed. As much as I want to rush in there and save him. We need to go to Xandar and look up the ship's identification number. Then we need a plan, A real plan not just twelve percent of one."  
Peter sighed "How are we supposed to get the number the ship is long gone by now."  
"I got it by relaying the Data-Pad's signal through our Comm system."  
Peter looked at the timer 06:03 "You're right, I hate it but you're right."  
He strapped himself in the seat then activated the ship's internal Comm-unit.  
"Drax? Groot? We have to leave now. Rocket's been captured. I'll explain later, but right now we gotta get the hell outta here."

Peter pushed the throttle and gently guided the Milano out of the Hanger. He sped away from the station as it exploded in what Rocket would have called. " A blaze 'o glory." The Milano shook violently as the shock-waves from the explosion hit the port side. Peter sped up and stabilized the Milano. He sighed, then unstrapped himself, he set a course for Xandar and went downstairs. He sat on one of the common room's benches. Gamora sat down on the other side of the bench. Drax looked at the two expectantly.  
"Okay, So Rocket's been captured.", Peter said "We haven't figured out who took him yet, But we will, and whoever did will pay."  
"Will we need to use Credits? Or Units? To pay them?" Drax asked  
Peter sighed "I mean we will kill whoever took him."  
"Ah yes, that would be the appropriate response"  
Peter sighed then continued. "We're heading to Xandar to look up the identification number 5C, A1, D that should give us more info as to who we'll be fighting we should be there in Thirty minutes."  
Peter turned and walked back to the cockpit he sat down and stared out at the vast expanse of stars.  
"Just hang on Rocket we're coming for you buddy."

* * *

**Author's Notes or whatever.**

**Thanks guys for all the reviews and follows and stuff. I've got some good stuff planned for this story... "Oh yes some really good stuff." (evil laughing)... Anyway just keep on reading and I'll keep on writing as fast as I can. I tried to think of name for this chapter but I couldn't think of one.  
**

**Thank you again**

**~RocketRaccoon18**


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

The best laid plans of Raccoons and Men.

A low rumble slowly faded in as Rocket woke up. He recognized it as the sound of a Class-865 Dual Core engine, that was clearly running at hyper-speed, Which meant that he was on a Scot-Class Kree warship. He opened his eyes and for a horrible moment he was afraid he would be back on that damn operating table.  
"W_hich would mean the needles, and scalpels, and cutting, and blood, and th-_."  
Rocket cut off his current line of thought he had to focus if was to be able to get out of here and contact the Guardians. He looked around the room, He was laying on a bed that was basically a plastic covered mattress on a metal shelf that could be folded against the wall if the prisoner need extra room. The shelf was held in place by two metal cables they were welded to the shelf and bracketed to the wall.

He sat up on the bed and looked at the rest of the room, there was a mirror on the wall across from him. He glanced over at the open doorway the air shimmered slightly, he figured there was a sort of shield in place to prevent him from leaving. The bright lighting came from the Light-strips that were fastened to the edges of the ceiling and floor. He hopped down off the bed, when he landed the whole world sort of spun around him, he collapsed down to all fours fighting down the sudden wave of nausea that washed over him.  
_"Well, damn my balance is flarked up."_  
"Odin-be-damned! My Krutacking inner ear implant is still offline. Well, that'll make this harder he thought Now I've gotta crawl like a flarkin' animal.._"_ he muttered.  
Scrambling over to the mirror he sat back on his haunches and reaching up was just barely able to tap the a claw on its surface.  
_Let's see... Mirror made of Ply-Polymer, A plastic mattress, Metal cables and..  
_ He crawled back over to the bed and jumped onto it. With a sigh, he realized that he wouldn't be able to see the brackets if he wasn't able to stand upright. He reached out taking the cable in paw, he tugged it hard a few times, then satisfied it would hold, he shimmied up the cable and took a look at the bolts that held the bracket in place.  
_Oh shit yes!  
_The bolts were the Galactic Standard which had a thin slot in the head. He went over all the pieces in his mind  
_Plastic.. Check, Cable.. Check, Weights.. Check, Power source ... Check.  
_He grinned, he had his escape...

Working quickly he cut off a large square of plastic from the mattress with his claw climbed down onto the floor and sliced the square in half one of the halves he cut into thin strips. These he set aside, he climbed back onto the mattress and shimmied back up the cable he carefully inserted his claw into the slot on the bolt head, With a bit of effort he managed to loosen the bolts enough so he could take them out with his fingers. He left the bottom bolt in and dropped to the mattress leaning against the wall for support he stood up, reaching up he took out the bottom bolt. The cable came loose from the wall it fell to the bed and slid down to the floor. He hopped down to the floor and placed the bolts next to the plastic he crawled over to the cable laying on the floor and looked at the weld that held it to the corner of the shelf. It was a standard cable weld like the sort they used on mining rigs on Velos-V which meant that if you twisted the cable hard to the right and pulled straight down against the weld it would come right off.

SNAP!

With the cable in paw he took it over to the rest of the parts he had assembled. He picked up one of the bolts and tossed it at the doorway there was a faint light-blue ripple in the air, followed by an electric crackle as the bolt hit the shield and was thrown back into the room it hit the wall and bounced off. With a frown Rocket crawled over to the bolt and picked it up he examined it, The bolt was slightly bent but other than that it was fine. He crawled back over to his work spot and picked up the cable he began to untwist it and separate the individual wires from the rest of the cable. After about three minutes he had the cable stripped down to two wires he took both bolts and wired them together onto the two wires. He took the square of plastic and wrapped it around the center of the cable. He took the small strips of plastic and hesitated for a minute. He would need the strips tied on pretty tight he licked his palms grimacing at the taste left behind he felt his sense of touch magnify taking the strips of plastic he began tying them around the plastic covered cable. He used the one good knot every bounty hunter should know the, he tied seven strips around the plastic. Glancing over at one of the Light-strips on the floor, he went over and gently poked two small holes in the hard covering that kept the liquid inside from escaping. Holding the cable by the plastic insulation he bent the ends of the cable into two small hooks. He took a deep breath hoping this would work and not fry him where he stood then he inserted the hooks into the holes he'd made in the Light-strip. The fur on his body stood up sending a slight shiver through his body as the energy was conducted through the metal cable. There was a faint series of beeps and clicks in his head and he knew his inner ear implant had been forcibly re-booted, cautiously he stood up and tested his balance, he was a little shaky but he could stand. He swung the cable above his head and threw it aiming for the shield emitters on the side of the doorway.

The cable, weighed down by the bolts, sailed through the air and hit the shield. Energized by the Light-strip's energy the bolts and the cable were able to pass through the first layer of the shield until the shield adapted and the cable became stuck inside the shield. Rocket let go of the cable and waited, he had done this sort of thing before in Ironrow a prison in the gamma sector of the K'ledrelin quadrant he knew that the energy from a Light-strip was able to overload a shield emitter's adaptability mechanic and power regulators, the resulting energy collision would fry the emitters.

With a bright flash of whitish-blue light and a loud sizzling pop followed by the smell of burning electronics the shield was down and Rocket was able to leave the cell. He picked up the cable, it could be used as a weapon, and walked out of the room. He proceeded slowly down the hallway until he came to an intersection He stood there listening for anything out of the ordinary he heard breathing. Peeking around the corner, he saw a soldier standing guard by a door, above the door written in Kree, was a marker that said 'weapons'. Rocket grinned and took the cable in both paws looping the ends around his palms he left a gap about the same width as a man's throat between them. He ran at the man and jump-kicked the back of his knee, forcing him to drop down with a surprised gasp to Rocket's height. Growling Rocket moved his arms in front of the man placing the cable across his throat and pulling back crisscrossing the ends at the back locking the cable into position. The man thrashed violently as his air was cut off, He clawed at his throat, trying in vain to grab the cord and pull it away. When Rocket felt the man go limp he quickly unwrapped the cord and moved to the side as the guard fell back unconscious on the floor. At that moment a group of guards walked around the corner a few yards in front of him. They saw Rocket standing over one of their own and began to run at him "Qam DaH Hegh ghaH rIgh bIH pagh bach maH!." shouted the leader.  
Rocket's translator implant kicked in "Halt rat or we will shoot!"  
He quickly grabbed the guard's keycard and stun baton he turned and threw the baton like a dart at the leader hearing a satisfying  
"Bzzzt" as the end connected with his chest. Reaching up Rocket tapped the open button and stepped inside the weapon room.

Once inside, he tore out the control panel on the inside of the room and rewired it, permanently locking the door. Sighing heavily, he turned around. Guns, swords, knives and all manor of weaponry lined the walls, each type of weapon was placed on its own rack, making it easier for selecting the right weapon for a person. Standing in front of the gun rack Rocket felt as happy as did that day about two months ago when he first tasered Quill on Xandar. He went over each weapon mentally assessing their capabilities he picked up one of the guns, a normal sized shotgun-like weapon, Well, to anyone else it would have been normal sized, but to Rocket it was nearly as long as he was. He grinned and shortened the strap, then slung it across his back. He looked carefully and found his pistols he checked to make sure they weren't damaged, then he turned and grabbed a holster-belt from the rack behind him. He shortened it, buckled it on and holstered his pistols. He grabbed a few extra energy magazines and clipped them to his belt. Satisfied, he was fully armed, he turned and opened the door.

Unslinging the rifle he held it almost casually as he pulled the trigger once. The rifle's quad barrel spun and spat out a large bolt of a blood-red color. The bolt hit one of the men in the chest and exploded, causing bits of flaming meat and bone to splatter the other men who all then turned and ran down the hall yelling in fear. Laughing, Rocket began to pick them off one by one. Painting the walls with random splatters of meat and fluids. He began to run through the hallways, making his way to the bridge where he would take the ship by force...

* * *

Quore sat on the bridge of his ship watching as 89P13 decimated the other smaller scout ship. He had spent the past eight years looking for it and had nearly given up hope of finding it when his spies at Nova told him that 89P13 had turned up on Xandar of all places and joined some sort of special task force at first he didn't- no he Couldn't believe it. 89P13 was tough, he knew that, he was the one who built it after all, but to survive for nine years without the necessary adjustments was unthinkable unless it had somehow figured out how to repair itself when something broke down. As Quore watched, 89P13 emptied the bridge of the scout ship. He looked at his wrist timer it had only been twenty minutes since he reactivated it. The thing had completed its test and had done so faster than he thought it would. It was a pity about the lost manpower though, oh well, there were people everywhere who were desperate enough to sign the Halfworld work contracts. He paused and pressed a button on the control panel.  
"General. I will be deactivating the subject, after deactivation you may proceed and retrieve it. We will be docking at Halfworld shortly take the animal to the operating room and prep it for surgery."  
"Very well Dr. Quore." came the reply  
Quore sat back and watched, he wanted to see the subject's expression when it realized there really was no escape.

* * *

Rocket pressed the button to open the bridge door nothing happened. He sighed and rolled his eyes as if locking the door would keep him out! Drawing one of his pistols he took careful aim and blasted the button's cover panel off exposing the wires. He looked at the various wires studying their arrangement before taking two of them stripping the rubber off the ends and touching the bare copper together, when the door slid open he dropped into a low crouch and dashed into the room he dived behind one of the control stations in the room as plasma bolts slammed into it. Slowly he stood up pointed both his pistols at the light in the ceiling and fired both pistols twice in quick succession. Instantly the entire room was engulfed in darkness. Rocket allowed his animal senses to guide him, he heard five distinct breathing patterns, Smelled two different scents and saw exactly where they were in the room. He stepped out to kill the first one then decided to mess with them first before killing them.  
"What's the matter? Can't ya see?" He called out.

He heard one of the soldiers move and dropped to the ground as two plasma bolts burned through the air above him, he rolled to the side so as to not be where the light from the bolts showed he was. He quietly and quickly crawled on all fours behind the soldier who shot at him. Grinning, he stood up behind him and tapped him on the back. The soldier yelped and opened his mouth to yell for help he had enough time to say "Guys, i-" Before his head exploded and his corpse collapsed to the ground. Rocket fired at one of the others who had been trying to sneak through the room and turned the corner to come face to face with a glowing energy bolt.  
"That's two of you down three to go. Ya gotta be better if ya wanna get me, I shot Ronan, escaped from twenty-three prisons including the Klyn."  
He walked quietly around to the side of the room dropped down behind a control console and reloaded the rifle. Raising it, he aimed at the nearest soldier and fired, watching as red bolt exploded on contact sending bits of the guy all over the room.  
"Whoops, Make that Three down, two left."

He felt a sharp pain suddenly erupt from within his skull and ground his teeth together to stop himself from crying out. The pain traveled down his spine and settled into his limbs.  
"Fuck!" he muttered, using a word he'd heard Peter use once. A familiar numb coldness was slowly filling his limbs.  
"That Bastard! He rebuilt it!"

Stumbling forward on rapidly numbing legs, he saw movement raised and fired the rifle exploding the soldier. Hearing movement behind him, he turned to see that the last soldier had found one of the emergency lights and had flipped on it briefly illuminating his body. Rocket sighed at the utter stupidity of "trained professionals" took one look at the man, raised the rifle, and pulled the trigger.

CLICK!

Rocket ejected the energy cartridge and glanced it over, There was a spider line crack in the outer casing a deep red glow surged out from the crack, heat was pouring out increasing with temperature every second by his estimate, the cartridge had about a minute before it exploded. Let's just say that he wouldn't want to be here when it did. Slipping the damaged cartridge into a pocket, he stepped out from behind the console, putting up his paws in the universal sign of surrender and walked over to the last soldier.  
"I surrender..", he said, "I'm outta ammo and all outta plan."

The soldier approached him cautiously, keeping the light focused on his face. As the soldier moved behind him, he palmed the energy cartridge into one of the man's pockets, then dropped down on all fours, ignoring the shards of pain that shot through him, and scampered away, heading toward the door. The soldier tried to grab him by the tail and missed his fingers getting a hold of only air. Rocket ran as fast as he could limping only slightly as he went. He got to the door, pressed the open button detaching the two wires as went. He grinned as the large door dropped down behind him. He turned, he couldn't take the ship by force, True, he had killed most of the crew and security officers on board. But he had noticed that the consoles in the bridge didn't respond even though they had been hit by lasers they should have responded. That meant that the ship was "Hard-Paneled" an old Merc term for a ship that was being piloted by remote and there was only one person who could have had it.  
"Quore, you son of a Shanrk! You ain't even on board! Are ya?!"  
He yelled to the empty hallway, he heard a large group of soldiers approaching. But he didn't care he would just have to wait for his team to find him he knew they would. The pain, which had now spread throughout his entire body, had suddenly deepened from a minor annoyance to a feeling like shards of glass being stabbed into him he gasped and dropped to the ground. He saw the soldiers rapidly approach, felt them grab his arms and lift him off the ground. He didn't fight back, it hurt too much to move. One of the soldiers yelled something and there was a loud sound a flash of light from behind the door to the bridge. Despite himself, Rocket laughed quietly to himself. The guard who yelled walked rapidly over to him and hit him in the face. Already on the edge of consciousness, he once again felt the cold blackness take him.

He awoke there was a bright white light shining down at him that made it difficult to see where he was, But he knew, He had spent about a year and a half of his life here. Even though it was useless, he tried to raise his arm and found it shackled to the table its cold surface burned like fire against his bare back. He heard the door open, heard the footsteps he both knew and hated. Quore leaned into the light "So how does it feel? You being back home after, What has it been? Six? Seven years?"  
Rocket growled and spit in his face. "Six and a half."  
Quore sighed and wiped his face, he reached over to something out of sight. Rocket heard the sound of metal clinking on metal. He shivered unable to help himself, he knew what Quore was grabbing. Quore grinned when he saw the raccoon's reaction.  
"So you remember our little sessions, eh?" he said in the tone of someone discussing a long past vacation.  
Rocket summoned up his courage and anger "GO TA HELL!" He screamed in Quore's face.  
Quore looked at him as if he had just said something funny. "Oh my little pet, Don't you know? We're already here."Quore raised the scalpel smiled down at the restrained animal "I missed you."  
Rocket told himself he wasn't going to scream, but, the moment the scalpel touched him, he screamed loud long filled with terror.  
At that Quore laughed "I see you missed it as well."

Rocket watched as Quore sliced into his chest, running the scalpel down his sternum stopping a few inches below the bone. He watched as his blood ran down his fur and onto the table. He pulled against the restraints in vain he heard himself screaming "Stop! Groot Stop them! PLEASE!" He knew Groot was far away and unable to help but still he screamed, he screamed for someone... Anyone, even Quill to help him.

Quore put down the scalpel and grabbed an Imager tube, "You see, Its been a while since you were last here. I need to see if any of your internal implants have been damaged or if they need to be replaced." He spoke calmly, his voice devoid of any emotion. He could have been talking about fixing a busted light-bulb.  
He took the end of the tube bent the flexible neck, giving it a slight curve he pressed the lens against the incision and into Rocket's chest. He turned the Imager on projecting the image on the wall. He studied the image ignoring the high-pitched chittering shrieks of agony coming from the table as he moved the imager around inside the raccoon.  
After what seemed like years to Rocket Quore removed the Imager and wiped it off on his lab-coat leaving long glistening streaks of blood that stood out obscenely from the coat's white material.  
"You're all good, I will have minor repairs scheduled as soon as possible. In the meantime, keep fit and healthy." He smiled, then laughed softly, he gently petted Rocket on the chest, he removed his hand and stared at the blood on his hand as if it was gold.  
"I'll take good care of you After all, no one else will.", Quore stood up and smiled at the raccoon., "I'll have someone bandage you, I wouldn't want you to lose too much blood, After all, We only collected so much of it for transfusions last time."  
He turned opened the door, then looked back at Rocket. "I'll see you tomorrow." and with that he left.

Rocket lay there shivering and whimpering and with cold, pain and fear. The light that had been shining in his face since he woke up dimmed and went out altogether leaving him in darkness.

* * *

**This chapter took me forever cause I didn't know how I should end it. Eventually I figured that any ending at all would be better than none at all. So I just ended it. And the more Geeky people who read this will be able to tell that what the Guard shouts at Rocket after he knocks out the first guard Is Indeed Klingon I don't speak it myself but I found a translator online. Also I tried to format this chapter a bit better than the others but I'm still learning so if this is even harder to read than the last chapter I apologize. As always Reviews are most helpful (You can't learn if no one tells you how you messed up after all) and wanted. Chapter four will be up as soon as it is finished. (When that is I haven't the slightest idea)  
So Stay Tuned**

**~RocketRaccoon18**


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four.

Discovery

Peter sighed. "Yeah, we don't know who took him. But Gamora was able to get the ship's Id number I need you to run a trace on it Dey."  
"Well, I'll see what I can do. What was the number?" Dey the head Corps-man was used to dealing with the group. But still he thought they attracted more trouble than the entire Corp put together.  
"Oh, Uh, Right, sorry about that. It's.." Peter turned and yelled behind him. "WHAT WAS IT AGAIN?!"  
Dey heard a reply, but he couldn't make out the words.  
"Thanks Gam I - HEY! I don't need or want memory enhancements there are things I want to forget..."  
Peter sighed and turned back to the screen.  
"Sorry Dey the number is 5C, A1, D. We'll be there in twelve minutes and we'll tell you everything we know."  
Peter pressed the button on the Comm station and ended the call.

He was anxious and wanted to get going as fast as possible. He tried not to think about Rocket. But no matter how hard he tried not to. Images of Rocket being tortured rose to his mind. He didn't know much about how Rocket was made. All he had were the few hints Rocket dropped when he was drunk or that day on Xandar after the battle. He knew it involved extensive surgeries and that Rocket remembered everything. But Beyond that he only knew what his mind told him. He rose and went down to the common room of the ship he looked at each of his crew.

Gamora was sitting there sharpening her swords he knew her well enough to be able to tell that she was worried. She hid it very well, but, the way she sharpened her swords was different he couldn't tell how but he knew it was. Then there was the way she casually glanced at the clock. She normally checked it about five times a day. But in the last few minutes she had glanced at it ever so slightly, at least four times.

Drax was worried too and didn't even try to hide it, he was pacing back and forth. Clenching and un-clenching his hands a few times before drawing one of his knives and running his thumb along the blade testing its edge. He did this every so often and it was beginning to get a little annoying. He would also say things like "When I find those who took the furry one I will put my finger on their throats." He would sit down for a few seconds then stand back up go back to pacing the floor.

Groot was the easiest to read he was normally always so cheerful the slightest thing would make him smile and dance in his little white pot. But now he was still and Peter could swear that every once in a while he would sigh. He looked at each of them and smiled briefly, but he lacked his usual cheer.

Peter sat down and waited he had always hated waiting, but there was nothing else he could do. He glanced over at the wall clock. 0900 Xandarian Standard Time. He sighed, then stood up.  
"Well guys, We'll be at Xandar in a few minutes."  
He stood up and went back to the cockpit he activated the Comm station.  
"Xandar traffic control this is Star-Lord with the Guardians, we'll be landing soon. So, Uh, That's all."  
"Alright Star-Lord, we'll have landing pad twelve cleared by the time you reach planet-side." came the reply  
"Oh, and have Dey meet us there."  
"Yes, sir."

Peter felt a swell of pride he had been called "Sir" finally some respect. He switched the Autopilot off and took the controls he adjusted the incoming angle and sped up. As he scanned the air around him, his mind wandered a bit. "I'm going to have to get the auto-pilot fixed one these days." It had been damaged during a meteor shower on Kra'dag a jungle planet they had been hired to search. He adjusted the angle a bit more and cut through the cloud cover. Below, Xandar City was gleaming as usual. The repairs were coming along well. The Kree government had insisted on paying for the repairs. Peter spotted landing pad twelve and gently maneuvered the Milano into place. He lowered the landing gear then activated the hover thrusters that gently lowered the ship into place. He stood up, walked to the back of the ship and lowered the rear ramp. He turned to the others smiled and said. "Let's go." he picked up Groot then walked out to meet Dey.  
"Hey Dey so did you run that number?" Peter asked.  
Dey looked at the others."It might be best if we talked about this in the conference room."  
Dey turned motioned for them to follow and began walking.

Inside the conference room a table was set up there were plates with various types of foods on them. Dey gestured toward the food.  
"In case you were hungry I had some food prepared, But with what I have to show you. You won't want to eat it right now.  
"Um, Okay. Thanks, I guess", Peter said,"So Dey? What is it?"  
Dey sighed and sat down at the head of the table, he picked up a data-pad that was sitting there.  
"So how much do you actually know about Rocket?"  
"Oh well...", Peter sighed."Not much actually. He really isn't much of a sharing type of guy, Unless he's sharing bullets."  
Dey smiled briefly. "Yeah, I can see that. Have you ever heard about a place called Halfworld?"  
Groot looked up at that and began frantically waving his tiny arms while squeaking "I am Groot!" repeatedly  
Peter looked down at him. "I guess he must have heard about it."  
Gamora looked over at Dey. "Halfworld exists? I thought it was a myth." she said incredulously  
Dey nodded "Yes, unfortunately it did exist. That is where Rocket is from but, more importantly, that's where he was made."  
Peter saw Gamora shudder out of the corner of his eye and wondered what was so horrible about this Halfworld place that it could make Gamora, Of all people, Shudder. "What is Halfworld?"  
Dey looked at him.  
"I can't explain you'll just have to watch and whatever questions you will have are going to have to wait until it's over.  
The data-stream was encoded so the audio was removed but the text logs still operate."  
He said as he powered on the data-pad and projected an old data-stream onto the screen behind the table.

* * *

HALFWORLD STA.  
Procedural Record # R14-12  
Head Overseer: Dr. Aldulus Quore.  
Subject: 89P13  
Time/Date: 0430 XST/ R4343-4Q-D3-15

A. Quore: As you can see we have finally found a species that might be able to survive the tests.  
*The camera panned over to reveal a raccoon restrained face down to a table.*  
A. Quore: The Subject has been prepped for a cursory surgery. We are administering the anesthetic..now  
*Behind Dr. Quore another person in a white lab coat took a syringe and injected the raccoon.*  
A. Quore: The Operation will be quick and fairly painless for the subject. We will be able to tell if this species is the right one in a few hours Nova Prime  
*Dr. Quore turned and picked up a scalpel. He made a small incision in the base of the animal's skull.*  
A. Quore: We are inserting a Neural Probe into the animal's brain. If it is sufficiently advanced enough for Intelligence Integration we will know in three hours.  
**********

HALFWORLD STA.  
Procedural Record # R14-13  
Head Overseer: Dr. Aldulus Quore.  
Subject: 89P13  
Time/Date: 0730 XST/ R4343-4Q-D3-15

*Dr. Quore is illuminated by flickering lights, Sparks drop from a busted panel and onto the floor.*  
A. Quore: This subject is perfect for integration we begin once the Probe is fully purged.  
Side note: Nova Prime we've been attacked again by the Crimson Sun.  
You promised us protection, We've lost months of research Doctors Ha'vash and Twi'jil are dead.  
Science labs One through Four are destroyed.  
We need more funding if we are to design the operatives you requested.  
**********

HALFWORLD STA.  
Procedural Record # R14-14  
Head Overseer: Dr. Aldulus Quore.  
Subject: 89P13  
Time/Date: 0500 XST/ R4343-4Q-D3-16

*The lights have been repaired. A side table is set up by the operating table.  
Other Doctor's are shaving the fur off the raccoon's leg.*  
A. Quore: Today we will be integrating the Cybernetics into the Subject's Skeleton.  
However, Due the short funding at the moment. We are only able to apply the minimal dosage of anesthetic.  
The Subject will feel the pain, but we have dulled it as much as we could.  
*Dr. Quore took a scalpel and hesitated for a moment then began to slice along the raccoon's  
thigh. The animal thrashed in it's restraints squealing loudly.*  
A. Quore: (Speaking loudly to be heard over the squealing)  
We will be cutting down to the bone. The bone will  
have to be broken for removal. The artificial bone will inserted  
and the Subject will be placed in a Bio-Stasis Chamber until healed.

HALFWORLD STA.  
Procedural Record # R14-95  
Head Overseer: Dr. Aldulus Quore.  
Subject: 89P13  
Time/Date: 0100 XST/ R4343-2Q-D2-30

*Dr. Quore appears tired and worn out.*  
A. Quore: 89P13 is progressing at an amazing rate.  
The other Subjects never got this far. This Subject is your breakthrough. Its entire Skeleton is rebuilt.  
And it's learning faster then we expected. The tests show that it is already at level 8 intelligence.  
Level 8! Do you even know what that means?  
*Dr. Quore rubs the side of his head and appears to sigh.*  
A. Quore: I haven't slept in eight days. We ran out of anesthetic on day nine of integration. We need that money you keep promising.  
We've been attacked by the Crimson Sun at least seven times since the last log.  
It seems your ignoring us. I don't know how long I can keep this up.  
Most of the staff don't attend the integration sessions I have no help.  
And 89P31 hates me. It broke free from its enclosure and tracked me down.  
It attacked me I tried to tell it that I'm not responsible for this. That I'm just following orders. But I know otherwise, it scares me, but I've grown emotionless where the Subject is concerned.  
**********

HALFWORLD STA.  
Procedural Record # R39-28  
Head Overseer: Dr. Aldulus Quore.  
Subject: 89P13  
Time/Date: 2350 XST/ R4345-4Q-D4-15

*Dr. Quore slumps down in front of the camera holding his neck, Blood seeps through his fingers.*  
A. Quore: This is it, the end. 89P31 rigged the station to self destruct. We don't know how It did it. The Crimson Sun attacked at the same time, they killed everything. They are coming  
They want me, I know They do.  
I'm dying 89P13 bit me it's not a large wound, But I am gone.  
Nova Prime you need to bury these records, the Crimson Sun have spies everywhere.  
89P13 has disappeared but I doubt it will live beyond a few weeks.  
*The door opens and in walk several armed men they grab Dr. Quore and haul him out of the room.  
One of the men smash the camera*

* * *

Peter sat back in the chair he was appalled by what Dr. Quore had been forced to become.  
"Why would Nova Prime fund that sort of a place?" Gamora asked, "And who is this Crimson Sun group?"  
Dey sighed "It wasn't the current Nova Prime. The one who funded Halfworld did it behind the backs of the council. This is one of Xandar's darkest secrets we funded Halfworld for the first few years. But, when they started drifting away from the agreement we had in place. We sent agents in undercover and they discovered that most of Halfworld was conducting illegal experiments. Nova Prime cut the funding the following week. We hired a group of mercenaries to go in and purge the place. What we didn't know was that the Crimson Sun had also been infiltrating Halfworld they wanted the procedures so they could continue the work in another facility. Dr. Aldulus Quore was taken by the Crimson Sun. We believe he was also augmented via the same processes he created. We do know that he fled from the Crimson Sun shortly afterwords. But we don't know where he went or what he's been doing."  
Gamora stood up and walked around the room she turned to Dey. "Why are some of the data-streams missing?"  
"We believe that the Crimson Sun erased most of the transmissions before they were able to be sent out."  
Peter stood up and walked around the room to stretch his legs. "Do you have any idea where this Halfworld is?"  
"We destroyed it there is nothing left... However we believe they have built a second facility, A space station about the same size of a small moon."  
"You mean like the Death-Star? Awesome!"  
Dey and the others stared at him in silence. He sighed "It's a Terran culture reference. Never mind.."  
Dey continued. "We tracked the ship that took Rocket to a sector just outside the quadrant. Here are the coordinates." He handed them the data-pad.  
"I wish you luck."

The Guardians left the Nova building and went back to the Milano. Peter, powered up the Navigation unit and typed in the coordinates then he checked the weapons systems. "If we're going up against the freakin' Death-Star I wanna make sure all the weapons work." he muttered as he ran the diagnostic program.  
Gamora was outside filling the fuel tanks. She thought about what Rocket must have endured it was no wonder the guy was so angry all the time.  
"Hey, Gams we need to go, come on." Peter yelled  
Gamora sealed the fuel tanks and walked on board. She went to the cockpit and sat in the co-pilot seat. She realized unhappily that she was sitting in Rocket's seat. Peter sat down in the pilot's seat. He eased the Milano off the landing pad then activated the thrusters and shot straight up into space.  
"I ran a check on the weapons." Peter said. He reached over and engaged the auto-pilot he set the throttle to the fastest they could safely go. Which was about 3.26 light years in three hours. Rocket had made that adjustment about a week into their shared life on board. He insisted that it was perfectly safe but Gamora still had her doubts. And the loud sounds that often came from the engine did little to lessen her opinion.  
"We'll be at the ship's last location in about ninety minutes." in that time we had better come up with a good plan." Peter said to her. "We need a better one than the one that got us into this mess."  
Gamora nodded and they both went below deck to the common room. For the next hour they went over the possible plans and variables before coming up with something they knew would be the best, the fastest and easiest.

"We're coming out of hyper-drive in fifteen seconds!" Peter yelled the others were making sure that they had everything for their parts of the plan. He sat down in the pilot's chair and grabbed the controls. He prepped the Comm-Unit for the message he was going to send to Halfworld.  
With a shuddering groan coming from the engine they stopped. Peter took one look outside the ship and dropped the transmitter in shock. He sat there open mouthed for a second before yelling "Guys? You're gonna want to see this." He was dimly aware of the others crowding into the small room. He heard both Gamora and Drax gasp.

Before them floating quietly were large pieces of debris. Peter noticed one of them had " ..FWORLD STA.." printed on the side.  
They were too late Halfworld was gone..

* * *

**So I bet some of you are wondering what has happened, While others can guess what has happened. I wanted to make this Chapter a cliff-hanger but I honestly think I failed at that. Anyway I hope you liked it I am working on Chapter 5 and it will be up on here as soon as it passes by my internal editor.  
~RocketRaccoon18**


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

In Halfworld Station.

Rocket lay there, he was trying to keep his breathing under control. But fear and pain had made it nearly impossible. The room was silent except for the sounds of his shuddering breaths. He flinched as the overhead light suddenly flooded the room with light. Forcing back a whimper he forced his face into a scowl. The other lights flipped on in the room Quore walked over and sat down in the chair by the table. He had a syringe in his hand."So we are ready to make the minor repairs. Before we begin I have two questions: How did you manage to survive for so long without me? And do want this?" He gestured to the syringe.  
Rocket snarled at him. "I don't NEED you! You flarkin sadistic piece a-" He stopped cut off by Quore's smile, his teeth were unnaturally white and sharp looking in weird lighting.  
"Since you don't need me. I won't give you this."  
He held up a syringe filled with a thick blue liquid and threw it against the wall where it shattered. The blue liquid splattered against the wall and dripped down to the floor. Rocket smelled the sharp scent of some form of pain killer. He tried to stop it, but he sobbed tears coming to his eyes. "Please... I'll be good, I won't try ta escape just give me the anesthetic." he blinked back tears silently cursing his stubborn angry nature.  
" Whoops, I'm sorry but, that was all I had." Quore sighed. "Oh well." He picked up a scalpel and Rocket began to panic  
"Please.. Don't do this.. Please."  
Quore brought the scalpel down and rested it against his leg.  
"No. Please!" He screamed and thrashed in the restraints.  
Humming to himself Quore began cutting on Rocket's left hip. Rocket fought the urge to scream as long as he could. His loud cries soon filled the room blotting out the sounds of the cutting. He could feel the animal part of his mind moving forward, it was a self defense mechanism: When put under enormous amounts of stress the implants in his brain that were designed for rational thought would shut off. Leaving the animal side of his brain behind. This prevented the implants from being overloaded with information. Which would cause irreparable damage to his brain.  
He watched Quore pick up a long needle. Quore pressed the needle against his Cybernetic bone. Sending waves of pain through his body. His screaming devolved into the chittering shrieks of an animal. One thought was running frantically through his brain. GET AWAY! GET AWAY! GET AWAY!GETAWAYGETAWAYGETAWAY!  
But he couldn't..

Rocket woke up, he felt slow and fuzzy like the world was too big. He felt... Nice and warm. His brain tried to figure out why he was feeling like this, but it stopped before it could ask the question. Am I dead? He wondered. But the continuous single tone beep that felt like it was right by his ear told him otherwise. He looked around the room. Quore was sitting silently watching him.  
"Whadya wan?" his mouth felt slow and unresponsive. He watched Quore carefully trying to judge his intentions, but the warmth in his head was making it difficult to think.  
"You're back. Good." Quore stood up and walked out of the room.  
Rocket sat there and sunk back into the warmth that filled his mind. He knew he should be worried, but strangely, he wasn't. He felt... At peace, something he hadn't felt in a very long time. He closed his eyes and slowly began to drift off to sleep.  
The door to the room opened with a loud bang. Rocket jumped and looked over at the door. Quore walked in he was pushing a cart that had several metal prongs attached by thick wires to a metal dome in the center of the cart. There was a User-Interface on the side Quore wheeled the cart over to the side of the table. "When we rebuilt Halfworld we also had the money we needed to get the tools we couldn't afford at that time. This particular device is really special it'll allow us to update the software and internal operating system within your implants." Quore moved over closer to Rocket "I drugged you so you wouldn't be able to fight me." He opened the restraints on Rocket's wrists and ankles. He lifted Rocket up and laid him down on his stomach. Quore refastened the restraints and began to plug the prongs onto the exposed implant on Rocket's back. "As to whether or not this is going to hurt you I don't know and I mean it this time." Quore moved around to the User-Interface on the side of the cart. He began typing quickly on the keyboard he hit the "Execute" key, then stepped out of the room. "See you in an hour." he left and shut the door behind him.

Rocket sat there not knowing what to expect. His back was tingling unpleasantly he felt more clear now he guessed the drugs were wearing off. He wanted to see what was going on but he couldn't turn his head to see. The tingle was slowly moving up his spine when it suddenly changed into a burning pain. He felt as if he was on fire. He screamed loudly not even trying to quiet himself. His vision flickered the pain in his head intensified. His left eye shut off completely his right eye flickered, then shut off. He was left in complete darkness, His heart was racing, his breathing was short and gasping. He smelled his own fear, sweat, blood and... Drax's cupcakes?!  
It was as though someone had suddenly pressed a pillow to his muzzle blocking off his air and sense of smell. He felt numb and lost, all his senses were cut off. He was left in nothingness, it was the worst and scariest thing he had ever experienced. He could feel his implants shutting off one by one. They're killing me... I'm dying, No one's coming to save me... He was strangely calm as he thought this. He could hear a loud pulsing sound in his head that rapidly grew in volume. There was a popping sound, then he was back into connection with the world. All his senses were back they seemed sharper and clearer. He could feel that his skeletal implants were still offline. Was that an hour already? he wondered. It hadn't felt like an hour it felt like only a few minutes had passed.  
He heard the door to the room open. He heard two distinct sets of footsteps move toward him. "-have much time the Crimson Sun ARE coming they somehow picked up on the fact that we have it back They will be here shortly. We need to arm the Countermeasure we implanted Dr. Quore." An unfamiliar but unmistakably female voice said.  
"Yes of course. However the Subject will want to know what is going on."  
"I don't thin-"  
"Just LEAVE!" Rocket jumped and yelped in surprise.  
"Yes sir."

Quore walked over to Rocket and ran his hand in his fur.  
"Forgive me for startling you I forgot you react to loud noises differently then then most. Anyway, we have picked up the Crimson Sun on our long Range scanners. The only difference is this time they brought Warships. Halfworld station wasn't built to be able to repel firepower of that particular caliber as I know you're aware. We also know they are coming here for YOU they see you as an investment. We know they have plans to build more things like you. They won't be as perfect as you are. They will be bastardized versions imperfect and broken. The thing is though they are worse than us. They will kill you, We wouldn't do that, We built you, They will tear you apart to find out how you work then leave you bleeding on their table until you die. Even I think that's wrong. However, We have planned for this We implanted a Countermeasure within your Systems. It is a type of Virus that will prevent them from being able to hack in to your Central Program Core. We have tested it before but it could cause some damage."  
" !" the same unknown voice came in through the station's intercom system that wasn't used very often.  
Quore sighed. "What do you want Ta'ki?"  
"The Crimson Sun have dropped from hyper-drive they are moving in."  
"Very well then get in here so we can arm the Virus."  
The door opened and Rocket could hear Ta'kí approaching.  
"Let's get this over with."  
The station shook violently as it was hit with some sort of weapon. An explosion could be heard far off inside the station.  
"Hurry Ta'kí they will be here soon.  
"I know, Beginning Virus arming process." The station shook again  
Rocket realized that he was going to be taken and that they were going to allow it. He closed his eyes gritting his teeth and whimpering against the pain as Ta'kí cut into him and injected a chemical into his brain.  
"There it's-"  
Ta'kí got no farther then that as her head was removed by a plasma blast raining blood down on Rocket who yelped in surprise as it splattered over him. Quore stood up and moved out of Rocket's sight line.  
"Listen to me I will let you have the Subject if you-"  
There was another energy blast and Quore fell over backward a large hole blown through his chest.  
Rocket heard a series of quickly spoken guttural words that his translator couldn't translate. The restraints on his arms and legs were removed. The men roughly grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and picked him up. He was thrown into a black bag the end was quickly tied closed. He tried to fight his way out to claw and bite the hand which was holding the bag. But all that did was get him thrown down onto the floor. He hit the ground hard landing on his arm he heard a wet popping sound and pain flooded through him. He yelped in pain, Which got him kicked in the head, His teeth cut through his lip. He felt himself slipping into unconsciousness his last though was: "How they gonna find me now?"

* * *

**Authors Notes:**

**I am so sorry this chapter took forever. I was trying to get this to end properly, But eventually I just told myself that any ending at all was better then having a chapter that would never end. So if the ending sucks don't worry I think so too. Um.. If you see or think of anything that I could do to improve my writing then please leave a comment. Anyway, enjoy the story and I will try to have the next chapter up on here soon.**

**~RocketRaccoon18**


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six.

Another thing gone Wrong.

Peter just stared at the debris field, He felt anger, grief but most of all... He felt as though he had failed Rocket. He stood up, turned and ignoring the others, he went back into his room where he locked the door and sat there silently blaming himself for everything.

Gamora was angry, And if there was one thing in the entire universe that you did NOT do it was: Make Gamora angry. She sat down in the Pilot seat and began to scan the debris field for anything that might confirm her suspicions.

Drax was also angry and upset by the recent discovery, But he knew that showing his anger and frustration by beating something with his fists until it stopped working wouldn't be helpful in this situation.

Groot could sense that something was wrong with the others. So he tried to cheer them up by dancing every time they looked in his direction. But it didn't seem to help it just seemed to make it worse.

The ship's scanners begin to beep loudly. Gamora quickly began typing on both the Navigation Unit and the Scanner Unit. She finished and took the controls and began flying away from the debris field. Peter came out of his room. "Why are we flying away? We need to look for a body.."  
Gamora turned to Peter and spoke slowly. "Peter, Rocket's not dead."  
"W-what? What do you mean he's not dead? No one could have survived that explosion."  
Gamora took a deep breath and explained"When we got here something didn't seem right to me.. Why would Dr. Quore take Rocket to a facility that had a faulty Hydron core? And some of the debris had plasma burns on it... Halfworld was attacked probably by the Crimson Sun. I searched for something that would indicate a ship passing by. I found five different Ion trails. They all seem to be going the same direction. So I figured we would follow them and when we catch up then we can figure out what we should do."  
Peter feels a bit of hope beginning to bloom inside him. He motions for Gamora to get up. "Well then let's go get him back..." He sat down and took the controls he started to push the throttle but, Gamora stopped him.  
"It's better to be a little behind, The type of Ion's I found are only made by warship engines, most warships have very long range sensors on them. They will see us before we are even within sensor range and with the amount of firepower on board most average warships we wouldn't last very long."  
Peter sighed. "When we get Rocket back, I'm going to have to talk him into increasing our shield efficiency. All he's done is make us go illegally fast and carry random mostly illegal weapons. Which is awesome and all... But, we really need more defensive capabilities. Sometimes I think that raccoon just doesn't get what defense, even is."

About twelve minutes later, Peter couldn't stand the silence any longer he put Awesome Mix Vol. 1 in the tape deck. Choosing the perfect song he began blasting "Cherry Bomb" through the entire ship. Gamora smiled to herself, She knew Peter well enough to know that if there was anything that could cheer him up it was his music. She also knew that Peter thought that Cherry Bomb was Rocket's favorite song on the tape.  
Why he could think this she had no idea, Rocket always seemed to hate Peter's music whenever Peter turned it on Rocket would press his ears against his head until Peter turned it off. Or Rocket would somehow turn off the power to the tape deck, they had no idea how he did it. All they knew was that sometimes he would disappear, then the music would cut off and about a minute later Rocket would come back grinning. Rocket had even stolen and hid the tape once. Gamora remembered how furious Peter looked. He found out that Rocket took the tape pretty quickly and confronted him. They all heard Peter's yelling, but the sound proofing in the walls distorted the speech, Gamora's enhanced hearing could barely pick up Rocket's mumbled responses. Peter came out of the room holding the tape and it wasn't until the next day that they saw Rocket.  
Gamora was pulled from her thoughts by a loud piercing beep from both the Scanner Unit and Navigation Unit. She glanced at the screens, "Peter, Stop." He did so without any questions. Then glanced over at her. "What?" there was no trace of the usual indignation at all.  
She pointed to the two screens. "They split up we now have nine trails each going in a different direction. We need to try and find out which one is the ship that Rocket is on."  
Peter growled and slammed the palm of his hand on the ships steering controls. "Why the hell can't anything go smoothly for us?" He looked at the Scanner Unit and the Navigation Unit. "Well guys I guess we'll just follow one path..." He trailed off and sat there for a second, then took the Comm-unit he typed in Dey's number and waited..

Rhomann Dey was sitting at his desk, He was going through the usual reports from the various outposts around the Xandarian system. His Comm Unit buzzed and without looking to see who it was he answered it.  
"Hello? This is Denarian Rhomann Dey speaking. How may I help you?"  
"Dey! How you doing buddy?!"  
Dey sighed. "What is it now Peter? You do realize it's literally been only two hours since you were here?"  
"Has it? Huh... Anyway, Uh, would be able to help me here? I need the frequency for Rocket's Tracker Implant."  
"Fine, but if Nova Prime finds out..", Dey did a double take, "Wait, how did you know he had a Tracker Implant?"  
"Call it a guess. I figured you might have had a way to track him."  
"I'll activate it for a short time, We had it deactivated to prevent Rocket from figuring out our involvement in his creation. In fact-"  
Peter sighed. "Listen Dey as much as I want to hear a history lesson, and I don't. We are in a hurry so just give us the frequency."  
Dey sighed again. "Alpha, 5,12,16, now I'm going to activate the tracker now."  
Peter gave a distracted wave. "Yeah, Yeah, bye." and the image cut out.  
"Your welcome." Dey said to the air. He still thought the Guardians were more trouble then the entire corps but he didn't complain. They were usually very efficient in their work... As long as they were being paid well. Which was about twice his salary so about 15'000 Units, He sighed and pulled up the subset Operating System that housed all the information and protocols that were considered to be Blacklisted, he entered his passkey and found the file labeled "Halfword Genetic, Cybernetic, and Robotics Research Facility." he opened it and scrolled down to find the file labeled "Subject Control Set". Then found the control set he wanted 89P13. He pressed the button to activate the tracker then disconnected from the Subset. He turned off the Data-pad and went back to over-viewing the Outpost reports.

Peter entered the frequency into the Navigation Unit and waited while the Scanners pinged trying to find the frequency. After a short while the Navigation Unit picked up the tracker's frequency. It was the fifth trail. Peter grabbed the controls and steered the ship in the same direction.  
"I suppose since all our other plans failed we're just gonna go in guns blazing."  
Drax looked at Peter, then at his knives he set them aside. "Very well, Though I detest firearms, They were used to kill my family, I will learn how to handle one. You are the Captain and as such I trust your judgment."  
Peter held back a laugh, Drax's mostly literal ways were annoying at times, but mostly they were hilarious, "Drax you can use whatever weapons you want. That was an expression meaning we'll just go in there and kill everything that gets in our way."  
Drax nodded. "Ah yes, That is a very good expression I will have to use it sometime."

After about forty-five minutes of non-stop music Gamora reached over and turned it off, "That is quite enough of that, I think."  
Peter looked over at her and sighed "Sorry, I'm just upset is all. I just keep thinking about what they could be doing to him", He paused thinking, "If we don't get there in time..." He trailed off not wanting to say what he was thinking.  
"We will get to him, And should anything have happened to him. They won't be around for long." Gamora said there was an edge to her voice that made Peter shudder slightly.  
He turned back to staring at the endless expanse of stars out the front window. He sighed "Yeah, I know.."  
The scanner unit began beeping loudly Peter glanced down and pulled the break causing the ship to stop suddenly.  
"What's wrong Peter?" Gamora said.  
"The tracker says we're here, but, I don't see anything and the scanners haven't picked up a ship cloaked or otherwise."  
Gamora paused, then grabbed a data-pad and hooked it to the scanner. She began typing glancing at the scanner every now and then. She sighs "The signal is coming from over there." ,She points at the starboard side, "My best guess is they already knew about the tracker. So, they modified a beacon to emit the same frequency. To throw pursuers off their trail."  
Peter sat back in his seat, then reminded the others of his time spent as a Ravager by letting out a rapid stream of curses in various languages. Gamora recognized these as minor curses and not the heavily explicit curses that Rocket usually used.  
"We should pick up the beacon, We can use it to track the ship it came off of."

Peter looked at her, He had no idea how that could even be done, but he trusts Gamora's instincts if she said it could be done then it probably could.  
"Okay. I'll fly out and grab it." He said as he stood up and activated his mask. He went to the back of the ship and stepped down into the airlock. "What exactly am I looking for?"  
Gamora's voice came through the Comm. "You're looking for a small metal tube. Since the ship didn't detect a warning light. You'll have to calibrate your mask's auditory sensors the frequency to find it."  
Peter activated the airlock dropping down into space. He quickly tunes his sensors and concentrates on finding the beacon. After about three minutes of searching Peter finally finds the beacon it is much smaller than he expected, Only about half an inch long and even smaller in width. Peter takes the beacon in between his fingers. He shrugs' then turns around and flies back to the Milano. He opens the airlocks external doors and starts the pressurizing sequence. After ten seconds he opens the internal door and climbs up into the ship. He hands Gamora the beacon and watches her.  
"This can't be it, It's too small." she said as she looked it over.  
"That's what I thought Gams. I was expecting something about a foot long."  
Gamora frowned. "This metal is wrong, I've seen it somewhere before..." she trailed off in thought.  
Peter sighed and reached for the controls to his tape deck Gamora gasped, stood up and walked back to the small Med-bay. "What is it?" Peter called after her. When she didn't answer Peter just shrugged and turned back on the music.

Peter sat not really listening to the music. He was just waiting occasionally biting his fingernails.  
He was about to get up and walk into the Med-bay When Gamora called out.  
"Peter, we might have a problem."  
Peter stood up and quickly made his way to the Med-bay, Gamora had placed the beacon in an analyzer. She was looking at the readout and tapping her finger against the counter.  
"What's wrong now?" he said.  
Gamora turned to him and pointed to the screen. Peter thought he saw a look of horror and disgust in her eyes, but it passed so quickly he thought he might have imagined it. He glances over the information on the screen not really understanding any of it. "So what I'm I looking for?"  
Gamora walked over and picked up the piece of metal. "This isn't a beacon Peter. It's an Implant specifically a Tracking and Bio-Monitor Implant."  
Peter suddenly felt weak as he suddenly realized what that meant. He looked down at the implant in his hand.  
"This is a part of Rocket isn't it."  
Gamora looked at him "Yes, Yes it is."

* * *

**Author's Notes: I'm sorry that this took forever for me to update I will try to do better. You guys are awesome!  
~RocketRaccoon18  
**


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

The Virus

Rocket woke up,The first thing he noticed was that his shoulder had been relocated. He sat up growling at the pain which spiked across from his shoulder and down to the spot on his back where the Implants were. He felt along the inside of his mouth with his tongue finding he had a few chipped teeth and a missing molar. His head felt as if it had been hit with a hammer, Something which had happened to him before in a bar a long time ago, He stands up forcing the pain to the back of his mind as he looked around the room to analyze the situation. The room was entirely made of some type of metal, It was lit by a single ancient light-bulb. Rocket realized that they built this room using technology that was at least a century old. "Damn, That makes getting out of here difficult." He looked around the room for anything that might help. But, the room was bare, There was a small bed in the corner of the room but that was it. He walked over to the bed and lifted the corner of the mattress. The bed was sitting on a flat, smooth slab of metal. Rocket growls and stomps his footpaw on the floor in frustration. "I'll just wait here then." he sits down on the bed and waits.  
After what seems like forever the door opens and a man wearing a white suit walks in. He is followed by two Badoon in combat gear. One of them glares at Rocket and hisses. Rocket snarls back, staring right, in its eyes, knowing that since the Badoon considered themselves to be above most mammalian species, it was offensive to look at one unless you were of some importance. The other Badoon carried a chair which he set down across from Rocket. The man in the suit sat down and looked at Rocket before speaking. "You're hurt... We can't have that. I'll send someone along to patch you up."  
Rocket stared at the man. "Why I'm I here?"  
The man laughed. "You'll see." and with that, he stood up and left. The two Badoon followed him out of the room.  
Rocket sat there wondering what would happen to him, he paced around the room running through the various scenarios in his head.

He didn't have to wait for very long about twenty minuets. The door opened and the same two Badoon walked in. The one in the front had a collar. He approached Rocket and tried to force the collar on him. Rocket looked at the Badoon,"Zha'gh!, Ilidajh'Xa Nardû!" (Stop! wait I'll come quietly.) he yelled.  
The Badoon soldier looked at him and grinned showing its many needle- like teeth.  
"D'wa Utleax ti'gei laugna trati raccoon, Grina aeta'xi cadreis D'wa, Xa'li gadriess." (You know our tongue little raccoon, That will not save you, I am sorry.) Rocket growled at the two Badoon as they approached. The one in front held out his hands.  
"Sä D'wa krædulu Xë'na trati Tah, Grïne cadreis Ilida be'ga." (If you fight us little one, things will not go well.)  
Rocket growled loudly, his tail swishing rapidly behind him. He snarled and jumped right at the Badoon He climbed, raking both sets of claws down its scaled face leaving eight gashes thin gashes behind. He jumped at the other one. The other Badoon lashed out and caught him by the throat then twisted and slammed him to the ground. He let out a choked yelp of pain as his back connected with the floor. Shards of pain radiated out from the implants on his back they traveled across and through his entire body. He clawed at the arm which held him down to the floor. But, that only made things worse. The Badoon screeched at him and lifted him up holding him by the neck and began repeatedly slamming him against the ground.  
Rocket was barely conscious when the Badoon lifted him off the ground and held him by the throat at arms length. It watched him struggle for breath, weakly trying to pry its hand off. It tightened its grip, it wanted to end this pitifully weak creature. Rocket weakly tried to kick the Badoon in the gut.  
The other Badoon stood up, Green blood dripping down its face. It saw Rocket dangling limply still weakly trying to kick at the one holding him. It wiped the blood away from its eyes and swiftly punched its co-worker in the face knocking him out. It watched Rocket drop to the ground, it bent down and checked his pulse. It sighed, "Xa Foulte D'wa trati Tah"(I warned you little one.) then picked him up gently and carried out of the room.

Rocket woke up the first thing he saw were the white lights illuminating the entire room leaving nowhere for darkness. Rocket sat up, He was sitting on an examination table in an off-white room, He was dressed in one of those papery hospital gowns. He began to panic, When suddenly there was a loud beeping sound in his right ear. It startled him, he turned quickly to see where the noise was coming from, He lost his balance and fell backwards off the table and onto the floor. He jumped up and turned trying to find the source of that annoyingly loud single tone beep. When suddenly it changed, A female voice, one he recognized as the unknown sponsor who funded Halfworld, spoke.  
" Subject 89P13 your tracking implant has been activated. Soldiers are on the way to your position. Any resistance will be met with deadly force."  
The voice stopped and the beep continued then the voice came back on repeating the same message. Rocket gritted his teeth as the same message was repeating over and over in his head. He felt overwhelmed by all that had happened in the last few... He couldn't even tell how long it had been. He crawled to the corner of the room and curled up on the ground with his knees drawn up to his chest and, with the message constantly repeating over and over in his head, he started crying softly his back and neck hurt badly. And the soft sobbing didn't help but he couldn't stop no matter how painful it was, He had never felt so alone, lost and broken.  
After quite a while, the door to the room opened and in walked three Badoon dressed in surgical outfits. They saw Rocket sitting there on the floor sobbing quietly they grabbed him by the arms and roughly stripped him of the gown, then carried him over to the operating table, He didn't fight cause he didn't care. He was broken, they won...  
The surgeons strapped his arms and legs down to the table another strap was used to hold his head in place. He felt a scalpel being dragged across the skin above his right ear, he screamed and thrashed in the restraints. He heard the drill before he felt it. He felt it touch him there was a brief flash of pain then.. Nothing, no pain besides the faint throbbing of where the drill was. He heard the drill shut off and get set down. He felt another flash of pain but nothing else but a faint tingling sensation. He realized with horror that they were digging around in his brain! The voice in his head shut off he, saw one of them walking off holding a small metal object in his hand Rocket shuddered as he realized it was a part of him. He closed his eyes, enjoying the silence. He felt them bandage the side of his head then, open the restraints. They picked him up gently and carried him through the hallways. He tried to track the hallways as they went, but soon gave up, he was too tired to think straight. They went through a door and into a room. There were Bio-tanks lining the walls, they were made of some form of clear glass-like material. They were filled with a blue gel that bubbled slowly. There were lights installed on the bottom of the tanks. The Doctors placed a breather mask, That had been designed to fit his muzzle, on him and lowered him into the tank. The liquid was cold, he felt the familiar numbing itch as the gel healed his injuries. He felt himself drifting off to sleep, he hadn't slept in... He couldn't remember how long it had been. He watched the Doctors leave the room the door automatically locking behind them. He told himself that he needed to escape, but he just felt so tired..

There was a loud hissing sound as the liquid was drained from the tank. Rocket woke up slowly the glass-like casing to the tank lifted up and he stepped off the platform his legs were weak causing him to fall to the ground. He stood back up using the wall to support himself. In the room, two of the scientists were standing there one of them approached and handed him a towel, then removed the bandage that was wrapped around his head. He wordlessly took the towel and began to dry his fur. The Scientists motioned for him to follow them, Rocket wrapped the towel around his body covering up the scars on his back. "If I can learn the layout of the ship.. Then I can escape." He thought as he started taking notice of all the corridors and creating a map in his head as he went.

They came to a room with a single table set up in the center of the room. At the other end and flanked by two Badoon sat the man in the suit. He smiled, It was the same false smile that made Rocket think of the large reptilian animals on some unnamed swamp world, and gestured to the empty seat. Rocket reluctantly sat down in the chair.  
"There's a button on the arm rest you can use to raise it to the correct height."  
The man said there was a hint of amusement in his voice. Rocket bites back a rather rude comment and raises the seat. He glares at the man as he slowly raises up to eye level. "That's better." the man said, "I never told you my name, My name is Rāvak Trēdti, I own and operate the Crimson Sun. We-."  
"D'wa Xashi D'wadi!" Rocket yelled at Rāvak, The man looked at him. "I wanted to avoid this."  
He pressed a button on his armrest and four restraints closed down on Rocket's wrists and ankles. He walked over to Rocket who was struggling, trying to slip out of the restraints. He smacked Rocket across the face with the palm of his hand.  
"You will listen to me! You won't interrupt me again. Is that understood?"  
Rocket sat there glaring at him. Rāvak nodded and returned to his seat.  
"As I was saying, We first heard about you during the first week of your creation. We knew there was money in making things like you. But, no one had actually done it and getting funding from the governments was a hard thing to do. We had tried, But Dr. Quore had beat us to it. We tried for a long time to locate the research. But, we never found it finally, we had a breakthrough. One of our agents was tasked with running a diagnostic program on your implants. He found that the instructions to create, you have been heavily encoded in your implants themselves. We tried to get you, but you had escaped at the same time we attacked. We lost track of you for a long while and Halfworld went underground for the longest time. Then we heard that Halfworld was being rebuilt So, naturally we investigated, we found out that Dr. Quore had found and captured you. We assembled the ships that were still in the Quadrant and came to get you. We were planning on removing a minor implant, but someone activated the tracking unit in your audio receiver so we had to remove that we scanned it and found that yes the code was there but it was a small piece so we copied it then we ejected the implant into space to put off anyone who might want you back."  
He paused and took a sip from the glass in front of him.  
"You know you represent the single most important scientific advancement of our time, I mean, transforming a Terran animal of all things into what basically is a living weapon. Do you realize what that means? We thought the knowledge had been lost But now we have a way to get it back. Unfortunately, in order for us to have the complete instructions, all of your implants must be removed then the code extracted and reassembled. By that time you will be dead."

Rocket felt the last bit of hope drain out of him with those words. He was left with the same deep despair that had hit him after Groot died. He stared at Rāvak, his despair turning to a deep anger. He snarled at the man and cursed him loudly in multiple languages. Rāvak sat there, watching him swear and curse until he ran out of breath, with an amused expression on his face. "You have quite a mouth on you. I counted four languages... How many do you know?"  
Rocket glared at him, but kept silent.  
"Ah, well, we'll soon find out."  
The Badoon in the room walked over to Rocket One of them placed a hand on his muzzle holding his jaws together. He growled at them as they lifted his head and placed a collar on him. They pressed a button on the side Rocket heard a slight humming sound coming from the collar.  
"That collar is fitted with a GTS unit. That's Galactic. Tracking. System, if you don't know. We will be able to find you wherever you go. If the collar is tampered with in anyway, it will send an EMP throughout your body that will put you in a lot of pain. Not as much as you will feel, but enough to incapacitate you for about an hour. As you can see... There is no escaping us. We are everywhere and we will find you, if you leave."  
Rāvak pressed the button on the arm rest. And the restraints retracted. He motioned to the Badoon. "Take him to the main operating room. Tell them to prep for extraction of minor implant Alpha."  
Three Badoon grab him and roughly drag him out of the room. Rocket starts yelling and struggling trying to break free. They take him into another white room and drop him onto the table. Two of them strap him face down. He screeches insults at them in Badoon one of then winces and leaves the room. Rocket keeps on yelling not caring what would happen to him. It was the only thing he could do.

After sometime of just sitting there yelling at the empty room. The sound of the door being slammed open startled him. One of the Badoon approach him. "Lissten to me." It said, speaking in Xandarian "Your sscared, I can ssee that. I can help you esscape but, you have to trusst me."  
Rocket glared at the Badoon. "Why would I trust a Flarknard like you?"  
"You don't have any reasson to. That'ss the thing about trusst it workss both wayss. If I let you free how do I know you won't kill me?"  
Rocket thought about that for a minute "Why do ya want to help me?"  
The Badoon looked at him. "We are an aggresssive sspeciess, But we are not without, What'ss the word? ", The Badoon sighed, " Edr'vach." (Compassion)  
"I don't like sseeing you tortured," The Badoon continued, "It'ss wrong, even for uss."  
The Badoon's communicator beeped. He grabbed the receiver "What?"  
"We need you to administer the paralytic. The surgical team have reviewed the known data and are ready to proceed with the extraction."  
The Badoon looked at Rocket. "I'll be done by the time they arrive."  
"Good."  
The Badoon sighed, "My name'ss Hiral. By the way I have mixed a little bit of anessthetic in the paralytic, It won't completely kill the pain but, it will dull it to manageable levelss."  
Hiral took a syringe and filled it with a pale green liquid. Rocket felt a bit of panic building up in him as Hiral lowered the syringe, bringing the needle to his arm.  
Hiral noticing his discomfort, quickly pressed the needle into a vein on his arm and injected him with the liquid. Then he set the syringe down, "Lissten the paralytic takess affect insstantly. Right now you cannot move, The anessthetic will take effect in about twelve minutess. After the extraction I will come and get you I don't know what they have planned for you, but I will try and help you asss besst asss I can."  
Hiral leaves the room the door clanging shut behind him.

Rocket sat there unable to move, his whole body was numb, It was uncomfortable to say the least but, he had been through much worse. He heard the door open again and watched three Badoon enter the room. They looked at him muttering amongst themselves, He felt one of them approach and gently run its hand through the fur on the back of his neck. He growled, The Badoon laughed at him. He heard the sound of an electric razor then felt it being dragged through his neck-fur the blades snagging on it pulling it painfully. About two minutes later all the fur on the back of his neck had been removed. The air was cold on his bare neck. He heard the clinking sound of metal objects he felt the scalpel touch him dragging through his skin. There was no real pain only a small amount of pressure where the scalpel was. He realized that the Badoon must have calculated a minor dosage for one of his own. Rocket felt light, almost as if he was floating. It was strange for him, Being awake during an augmentation and not writhing in agony. His vision flickered slightly in his right eye. He figured it was a side effect of the anesthetic, But when a flare of pain stabbed into his head he knew something was wrong. The pain grew flaring with every beat of his heart he was unable to move, scream or do anything. The pain grew in intensity a voice in his head spoke: "Virus activated, Time to deactivation: 02:04:15:00:00." The pain suddenly grew worse Rocket gasped then blacked out.

* * *

**Author's Place To Say What He Want's:  
Thank you for the comment's and everything it means a lot to me. Now, the language that the Badoon speak is my creation, That's part of the reason why this chapter took so long for me to write... It's a pain being a geek sometimes,** **As usual comments are loved and suggestions on how I can improve are always wanted.**  
**Thanks**

**~RocketRaccoon18**


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight

Peter dropped the implant the moment he realized what it was, it fell and clattered faintly on the floor. "What was it doing out in space?" He said faintly.  
Gamora looked at him, "We asked for this implant to be activated, They must have removed it to prevent us from tracking him."  
Peter bent down and picked the implant up holding it between his fingers. "What do you think they are doing to him?" He placed the implant back on the table and turned to Gamora. "Do you think removing this implant could hurt his other systems?"  
"I don't think so.. But, from what I've seen his systems are very experimental. It is possible I guess."  
Peter sighed "We need to find those bastards and get Rocket back. Now!" He went to the cockpit and set a course along the Ion trail, He set the speed to as fast as they could go without going into Hyperspeed. Peter sat there listening to his Walkman and staring out into space, glancing down at the Navigation-unit every so often to make sure they were still on course.

They were about an hour and a half away from the main ship Gamora sat down in Co-pilot's chair, "I scanned the Implant again and I picked up something strange, There appears to be traces of a data-stream imbedded underneath the Implant's basic programing that's something I haven't seen."  
Peter glanced over and removed the headphones, "What?"  
Gamora rolled her eyes. "I said, There appears to be traces of a data-stream imbedded underneath the Implant's basic programing. It might be a subset of the Bio-dynamic transitional algorithm but, I can't really tell. I don't have necessary equipment to analyze it properly."  
She looked over at Peter who was just sitting there "You didn't understand a word of that did you?"  
Peter grinned, "Nope not at all, But, could it explain why they took him?"  
"It might. But, We need to get Rocket back before any further damage is done."

The Milano's scanners beeped once indicating that it had picked up something different. Peter and Gamora looked down. There was another Ion trail that split off from the main one.  
"What do you think that is?" Peter asked.  
"I don't know." She sighed, "I wish we had another ship so we could follow that one too."  
"You don't think Rocket is on that one do you?"  
"No it isn't likely but, we don't know. That's the problem we don't have any idea what's going on or what's happening to him.  
Peter thought about what to do. If they turned around and went after the smaller Ion trail then they might be leaving Rocket. But, if they kept going after the larger one they might be leaving Rocket. He didn't know what to do...  
"Dammit!" ,He hit the console in front of him with the palm of his hand, "We just have to keep going, If he's not there we'll turn around and come back."  
Gamora nodded in agreement, "That would be the best course of action."  
Peter closed his eyes, "Just hold on Rocket we'll find you." he thought.

They were nearing the ship, It was on the short range scanners now. Peter set the Milano's auto pilot and called together the team.  
"Alright, listen, We are nearing the enemy ship. The plan is simple I'll use the teleporter Rocket built to teleport us into the ship. We will search the ship, killing anything that gets in our way. If one of you finds Rocket before the others use the Comm. We'll regroup in the common room.", He turned to Groot, "Listen buddy, You've gotta get us outta there when I call. I've programed the teleporter to lock onto our Comms all you gotta do is press the button when I tell you to."  
Groot smiled at him and nodded. "I am Groot."  
Peter smiled back at Groot. "We should be there in a few minutes." He looked at them there was a look of determination in his eyes. "Let's get Rocket back."

Peter gathered the others, He had set the Milano to cruise a few meters behind the larger ship, he was in the common room. He was standing there in the middle of the room with the teleporter in hand. The teleporter was a small round disk that had five handles on it. It was about six inches across and made out of various pieces of scrap that Rocket had gotten from who knows where. In the center of the disk was a smaller clear disk that was made of some sort of hard glass-like material. It pulsed with a white light.  
"I don't know if this will work. Rocket said there was a 15 % chance that it might cause us to explode or merge with each other then die. But, I couldn't tell if he was joking or not, I mean, I'm sure he was but... Well, here goes nothing."  
He pushed a button on the underside of the device. There was a faint pulsing whine, then the handles clicked and extended out giving each of them enough room to place their hands on the handles. Peter grinned, "Five to beam down." He closed his eyes and pressed the glowing disk.

They all felt a flash of pain followed by a deep cold sensation and another flash of pain. When Peter opened his eyes, he found himself standing in the ship. He breathed a sigh of relief and pressed the button on his earpiece. His mask formed around his face and he drew his pistols, "Alright, let's go get Rocket back." He turned and began walking down the hallway. He looked at the walls, noticing marks that his mask's HUD told him were plasma burns. He kept walking, down the hallway checking the rooms as he went. He heard footsteps approaching from in front, Peter quickly moved into a room labed "Storage one." Two Badoon walked by, he heard them talking in their strange language. He listened, his translator implant enabled him to understand them.  
"Internal Sensors indicate that three unregistered lifeforms have somehow gotten aboard our ship. Remember Rāvak wants them alive, they could be friends of the animal." One of them said.  
"But, we don't-"  
Peter stepped out and quickly shot the one on the left, He stumbled and looked down at the hole in his chest, "Fuck!, I think I'm bleeding." he says faintly, Then he drops to the ground.  
The other Badoon soldier yelped and dropped his rifle. He raised both of his clawed hands in the air. "I surrender!,"  
Peter walked over and kicked the gun across the floor, He pressed a button on the side of his mask it was a feature he had Rocket add in. It had taken weeks of pestering the raccoon, but he finally did it. Peter secretly had always wanted to do this:  
He grabbed the Badoon by his shoulder and shoved him against the wall.  
"WHAT DO YOU KNOW OF ROCKET RACCOON?!" the mask had deepened and slightly amplified his voice.  
"Who?"  
"THE RACCOON YOU BROUGHT ON BOARD THIS SHIP! WHERE IS HE?!"  
"You mean the animal?" the Badoon was shaking slightly,  
There was a deep, loud sigh from behind the mask, "YES, THE 'ANIMAL'.", this statement was punctuated by air quotes, "WHERE IS HE!"  
The Badoon looked at him, "I don't know, but, I know of someone who might."  
Peter realized with a faint pang of sorrow this Badoon was just a teenager, Who was probably on the ship due to the slave trade.  
"WHO IS HE?"  
" Rāvak, He's the one in charge. He's in his personal quarters right now." he said quietly, "Please don't kill me.."  
"I WON"T KI-", there was another sigh, Peter reached up and turned off the voice, "I won't kill you."  
Peter set his pistol to sleep, which was like stun, but, more instant and painless, "But, since I can't have you following me either." He pulled the trigger and  
caught the boy and lowered him to the ground.

Peter continued walking, He pressed the Comm button on his earpiece, "Guys?, We need to find someone named Rāvak. He's on board the ship in his personal quarters, He's the one running this operation, he knows where Rocket is."  
Gamora's voice replied, though there was a lot of background noise, "Alright Star-Lord, Will do Gamora out."  
Drax's voice came next, "I will begin looking."  
Peter continued down the hallway, he came to a lift that would take him to the third deck. He pressed the button and waited.  
Peter heard the lift settle into place He aimed his pistols and waited as the doors opened.

After a few seconds he moved into the lift. Looking over the buttons he pressed the one labeled 'Executive Quarters' the doors shut and the lift began moving. Tapping the button on his earpiece he spoke, "Team? I'm moving to the Executive Quarters floor. Hopefully I'll find Rāvak there.. Peter out." the doors opened. Standing there in the hallway were seven Badoon they all were armed with rifles and appeared to be wearing the latest combat armor.  
"OH COME ON!" Peter yelled as he moved to the side and pressed the button to close the doors.  
The doors shut just as the several lasers slammed into the metal Peter flinched, he tried to think of a way out of the situation but the noise was making it difficult to think.  
"Could you guys keep it down!", he yelled at the Badoon, "I'm trying to think in here that noise is making it kinda difficult!"

The laser blasts stopped after a few seconds, "Thanks, that'll ma-" Screams of pain and lots of gunfire could be heard in the hallway. Peter grinned, based on the loud battle cries it was Drax out there. Peter pressed the button to open the doors. "Thanks Drax, I didn't know wha-" Peter was suddenly grabbed by a scaled hand and thrown against the wall. His head slammed into the wall disorientating him. He felt the hand grab him by the throat and begin to strangle him.  
He saw the Badoon's eyes widen, It let go and stepped back. "I am ssorry, I thought you were an enemy.", the Badoon faltered as if he was trying to remember something, "Sstar-Dork."  
Peter coughed and rubbed his neck. "How do you know who I am?!", he raised his pistol.  
The Badoon held up his palm, "My name iss Hiral I know why you are here.. You are looking for Rocket. He iss not here.. I ssent him to Relvuss an outposst near the Xandarian border. He told me you might be coming here I wasn't ssure, but when the Comm went crazy, I knew you had to have been on board, where'ss the rest of your team?"  
Peter listened to this, but, he still had his doubts, "They're around somewhere, I don't know if I can trust you, how can I be sure you are who you say you are?"  
Hiral reached into his pocket and placed a small twig in Peters palm. "He said you wouldn't believe me. He told me to give you that."  
Peter looked at it, He recognized it as a small piece of Groot. After the events on Xandar Rocket had begun keeping a small part of Groot tangled in the fur on the tip of his tail. Rocket didn't like to talk about it but, they all knew why he did. Peter put the twig in his pocket and turned to leave. Hiral grabbed him by the shoulder. "We musst leave now. I sset sseveral explosivesss around the ship your friend Rocket told me to: 'Blow this fucking place to the dammed-cavernous-pits-of-hell.", Hiral's mouth was moving out of sync with his words as he said this. Peter realized he was speaking Badoon. "I didn't know he spoke Badoon.", he said, "That explains a lot..."  
Hiral looked at him a puzzled expression on his face, "Speak?, He signed it, Rāvak had his vocal processor removed."  
Peter gasped. "What?! What do you mean?" Hiral looked at him calmly, "Rocket's vocal processor was removed, Rāvak felt that it would be the easiest to get to and it would..", Hiral paused think about how he was going to say this, "He thought it would make the following.. Operations easier on who ever was performing them." Hiral pressed the button to call the lift.

Peter pressed the button on his earpiece, "Team? I found someone.. He's Badoon he helped Rocket off the ship. He told me where we can find him. Make your way to the Common room we need to leave now. Rocket could be worse off than we thought."  
Drax answered, "Peter, I believe that Gamora has, As you say: Been moved from the pan and... Onto the stove? Is that right?"  
Peter clenched his fist, "Dammit!... Drax where is she?"  
"I'm not sure.. She went into the room about three minutes ago. I assumed she could take care of it. I moved down the hall and cleared out the rest of the rooms. I went into the room where she was and I didn't see her."  
"Drax stay there.. I'm coming to you. Remember, I have a Badoon with me don't rip him apart when I get there. What deck are you on?"  
"Science and Engineering."  
"Thanks, Pete out."  
Peter turned to Hiral, "Let's go."  
The Badoon nodded and stepped into the lift. He looked over at Peter. "What is wrong? You are troubled."  
Peter sighed as he checked his pistol's energy cell, "Yeah, it's just that nothing I ever do seems to work. I had Rocket come up with a plan.. Now he's captured. We came up with a plan to get him back and that didn't work. So we came here hoping that maybe since, All the times we had a plan didn't work that, maybe if we didn't have a plan it would work. But I guess not-"

The lights in the lift flickered slightly. Hiral reached over and hit the emergency button. The lift stopped and the door opened. "Get out, They're cutting the power to the lifts in the ship. We need to climb if we are to reach your other teammate in time."  
Peter stood in the hallway, "What do you mean in time.. What's going to happen?"  
Hiral walked down the hallway looking along the wall, "You don't know much about The Crimson Sun do you?"  
"No."  
"They are a criminal organization the black markets on most worlds in the galaxy are controlled by them. They will want to sell Gamora."  
"To who?"  
"Thanos of course."  
"Shit..."  
Hiral opened a hidden hatch on the wall, revealing a ladder. "If we were to go down from here it should take us to the room where they will be holding her."  
Peter ducked in and began climbing down, "What if you're wrong?"  
"Then the rest of us will die.."  
Peter looked up at Hiral. "Listen, let me go on, Four floors above us there is a young Badoon, I don't know his name but, he will be unconscious by the first storage room. You need to get him out of here alive."  
Hiral nodded and began climbing up, "I will find him and return as fast as I can."  
Peter began climbing down the ladder, "I hope she's okay.."

* * *

**Author's Notes: Sorry this chapter took forever for me to write, I didn't know exactly where it was going. Then some other stuff popped up in my head, So I kinda put aside for a bit. Then I came back and found out where it was :D You all know how it is.. :D  
Stay tuned for more.  
Thanks,  
~RocketRaccoon18**


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter Nine

Rocket woke up, He was restrained by his wrist to a soft white bed. His head was pounding and his entire body was sore and weak feeling, he groaned as he opened his eyes, the light in the room made his head hurt worse. He looked around the room it was the same as all the other rooms he had been in: white, overly clean and filled with random machines that made little binging noises.  
He moved his arm in an attempt to relieve the pain in his shoulder, he felt a sharp stinging and glanced down, the sight of the IV in his arm made him shudder, feeling a slight panic began to build up in him. He closed his eyes and bit his lip to keep quiet as he slowly pulled the IV out, shuddering at the feeling of it sliding out. He pulled the tube off the needle and set it to the side. Concentrating on the needle he inserted it into the keyhole and felt around for the latch that kept the cuffs on. After a minute or two he got the cuff off and dropped down off the bed to the floor. His balance was off slightly He tiptoed over to the door and listened, He could hear faint voices on the other side. He couldn't tell how many were guarding the door, but, He knew that in his weakened state he wouldn't be able to fight them.. He would have to think of another way out. He looked around the room, he knew there would be the standard medical supplies, but, he didn't want to have to touch those unless there was no other way. He saw the air vent and, even though Peter always said that was the way the coolest spies did it. Rocket knew it would never work, air vents were loud and unstable. He didn't think he could climb there anyway. He sighed, he would have to try and find one of the access tubes. That meant he would have to find the UV emitter first. He walked over to the cabinet, there were bandages and medicines, but no UV emitter. He was looking through one of the cabinets when a stab of pain shot through his body. He fell to the ground as his legs suddenly gave out, He heard the voice in his head say, "Time to deactivation, 02:04:14:30:00. Initiating secondary Implant failure." He felt a sharp stinging pain all throughout his head, he growled putting his paws to his head. The pain grew worse, his vision flickered and he was laying on the floor. He tried to move but couldn't his body wasn't responding. He heard voices and saw lights then... Darkness.

Rocket opens his eyes they feel heavy as if he had been asleep for a long time... Blurry flashes of light pass overhead. "Where am I?" he thought, "Oh well, it don't matter." he closes his eyes sinking into the warm tingling that had crept over his body.  
There was a sound by his ear that woke him up, he opened his eyes to find himself floating in another tank of liquid. He panicked, flailing around in the bluish liquid, His brain told him that he was fine, That he could obviously breathe, But his instincts told him he was going to die if he didn't get out of there. He saw the liquid draining and the clear tube lift up. The Badoon who helped him was standing by the control panel Rocket watched Hiral walk over to him, Rocket whimpered as the Badoon approached, In the back of his mind, he knew the Badoon wouldn't hurt him but, there was an overwhelming sense that he had to run building up in his mind. He pulled at the restraints that locked his footpaws to the base. Hiral looked at him curiously and quickly pressed the button to release him of the tubes and other life support systems. Rocket drops down to all fours and scampers across the floor, he moves into the corner and curls up into a ball. "What is wrong with me?" He thinks, "Why am I acting this way?"  
Hiral slowly walked up to him, his hands were held out in a peaceful manner.  
"I am not going to hurt you.. Can you understand me?"  
Rocket nodded, he looked at the Badoon and opened his mouth to speak but found that he couldn't. His heart raced as he realized he couldn't speak, he felt the back of his neck. Trying to claw off the bandage he didn't care that it hurt, he just wanted to know what they had done to him.  
Hiral stepped closer and reached for Rocket. Rocket snarled and scratched at the Badoon, He didn't mean to do it, it just happened. Hiral growled in pain as Rocket's claws sliced down his arm, his dark purple blood flowing down his arm and dripping on the floor. Hiral stood up and quickly walked out of the room, closing the door behind him.  
Rocket sat there in the room, he suddenly felt the urge to crawl under the table and stay there. He moved across the room and under the low table, He curled up feeling the cold bottom of the table pressing into his back. He turned so he was facing the door and waited.

The door opened, Rocket crouched lower being as careful as possible not to make any sounds he heard the Badoon, "His name is Hiral and he ain't gonna hurt me." he thought, But, his body didn't want to move. He felt safe under the table, He watched as Hiral moved closer stopping by the table. Rocket could hear him moving and waited..  
Hiral kneeled down and looked under the table, Rocket quickly scampered underneath the bed. He watched Hiral stand up, "I am not going to hurt you little one. I have a way to get you off the ship." He walked over to the bed and, dropped down, he reached out and grabbed Rocket by the scruff of his neck and scooped him into his arms, Rocket began to struggle though he didn't know why. It was strange to have his body reacting on instinct while his mind was trying to analyze the situation.  
Hiral gently held the struggling raccoon, to his chest to stop him from scratching, Rocket calmed down after a bit. Hiral sat him down and looked at him, "Listen to me Rocket, The only way off the ship is an escape pod, I trust you know how to fly one?"  
Rocket held up his paws and, using the standard Badoon sign language which he hoped Hiral would be able to understand, he said, "Yes, can fly one. You know, why not speak?"  
Hiral looked at him then, nodded "No, I do not know why you cannot speak.. I would have to check with the Science Officers. However, we do not have the time. Our ship will be passing nearby a lunar station in an hour, I need to get you off the ship at the station you can contact whoever you need to contact and get away."  
Rocket looked up at Hiral and mimed writing, Hiral nodded and went over to one of the counters and grabbed a medical chart and pen, He handed them to Rocket. Rocket wrote out, "We need to destroy this ship... If they survive then they will hunt me down."  
Hiral nodded, "I understand, we don't have much time though.. I can put up a few explosives in the brig and storage areas. It won't be enough to completely destroy the ship. But it will provide the distraction I need to rig the power core to detonate."  
Rocket grinned, "Good plan, my team will be looking for me," he wrote, "If you see them, tell them where I am, and to hurry."  
Hiral nodded, "I do not know your team... If they will be looking for you they won't know I'm an ally."  
Rocket nodded and drew a few pictures of the Guardians and wrote their names above the pictures.

He drew a stick figure with sword above it, he wrote Gamora, He drew a tallish stick figure that was holding two large knives above it, he wrote Drax, He drew a tall stick figure with a few smaller lines out of its arms and back he drew little leaves on the ends above it he wrote Groot. He drew a stick figure wearing a cartoonishly large mask. He grinned and above it, he wrote Star-Dork. He handed the paper to Hiral and signed, "Can't picture good."  
Hiral smiled and Rocket felt a tremor of fear run through him at the sight of those teeth, "I understand.. We should get going, I can take you to the pod we will use."  
Rocket looked at him, He felt that Hiral was a friend, one he could trust, but, there was doubt in his mind. He realized that he had no choice but to trust the Badoon and hope for the best. Hiral turned and opened the door, "It is the night cycle so I don't think anyone should be out. But in case they are." He grabs a small collar, "I know, you're going to hate this but, You need to put this on. It's a deactivated Control Collar, It's for show." He crouches down to fasten it on. Rocket growls at him, but, forces himself to keep still as the collar is fastened on Hiral opens the door and motions for Rocket to move first Rocket moved on all fours out the door. Hiral stopped him by putting his foot in front of him, "Wouldn't walking be faster and easier?" He asked nicely not wanting to offend the raccoon. Rocket sat back and looked up at him, he signed with his paws, "Feels natural this way. Not explaining well.." he sighs, "You carry me?"  
Hiral nodded, "Yes, that would be faster anyway."  
He picked Rocket up, wincing as the raccoon climbed up towards his shoulder. Rocket sat there looking around almost shyly, He glances at Hiral and nods. They walk down the hall, Rocket riding on Hiral's shoulder. They get to the pod bay and Hiral set Rocket down, "We have about ten minutes, While you were unconscious I was able to store up a little food and supplies. I don't know how long you will be on the station, My suggestion would be to stay in or with the pod.. I have placed a weapon in the supply locker with the food if you need it." Hiral watched Rocket climb inside the pod and boot up the systems, He stepped back and opened the hangar door feeling the slight pull as the atmosphere was sucked out into the void before the shielding kicked in sealing the opening. Rocket looked at him, "Thank you.", he signed, "Hope we meet again." He grinned and closed the pod door.  
Hiral turned and walked out of the room, He had to come up with an alibi and quickly..

Rocket looked at the controls and activated the small ship's stabilizers, he pushed the throttle as far as it would go wanting to be as far away from the station as possible. He kept to the course that was set on the Nav-Comm.  
He thought about broadcasting a beacon to the other Guardians, but, he decided against it, Rāvak could have people monitoring all the communications. He sighed and activated the auto-pilot walking back into the small living quarters in the back, he found the food and the weapon. It was a small pistol that fit nicely in his paw. He disassembled it and looked at each of the components he found that it was a stun pistol, "Well, that's no good, I can't defend myself with this.", he thought. He moved over to the wall and opened one of the maintenance panels he looked over the components in the wall and grinned, there was more than enough stuff here for him to modify the pistol to the right power setting. He looked at the Nav-Comm he would be at the station in less than an hour, Once there he would just settle down and wait for the Guardians to find him. There was a sharp pain in his head and the voice spoke: "Time to deactivation: 02:04:11:15:00."  
He just hoped they could do something about that.

* * *

**Author's notes: I am sorry this took so long. I will continue to write and post maybe once every two weeks, but, I don't know.  
Please Read and Review it really does help  
You all are the best** :D

**~RocketRaccoon18**


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter Ten

Peter continued to climb down the ladder. He worried that he might not make it in time, That maybe Gamora had already been put somewhere. He wondered how she could have been taken alive.. He had never seen anyone beat her in a fight before.. And that scared him. He didn't want to fight anything that could take down Gamora. He sighed and took the time to check his blasters he wanted to be sure that the power cells were full enough for a fire fight. Rocket never let him forget it last time and if it happened again. Well, that raccoon wouldn't ever let it go, "Hell, he might even use it as blackmail.." Peter said aloud.

He kept climbing down and just when he thought it would never end, he reached the access hatch. He paused activated his helmet and turned up the audio sensors and listened for voices on the other side.. There was nothing. He sighs, "If they're waiting for me.." He opened the hatch crawled out and looked around the hall he was in:  
It was like the others dull gray with white lights imbedded in the floors and near the ceiling. The only exception was the floor. The floor was littered with bodies and severed limbs that had been covered in large leaking gashes. And they looked as if they had been made by an angry woman.. Yep, Gamora had definitely been through here.  
Peter forced back the bile that was climbing up his throat, He didn't want to throw up in his mask.. It had happened only once before.. But that was enough, "Hell hath no fury.." He said as he walked along the hallway following the trail of bodies, limbs and blood. He stopped when the masks scanners beeped there was a residual EMP signature in the air. Peter stopped, "So that's how they got her.."

He didn't know a whole lot about how it worked. But he knew that Gamora had several enhancement implants in her body and brain. It was one of the pieces of information she had shared during one of the team building moments he had set up. Peter also supposed that the EMP was the same way they got Rocket.  
None of the team really knew much of the raccoon's history. Only that he was made by. "A bunch of sick Flarkers who deserved to be…" A lot of what the raccoon said was graphically violent and probably illegal in almost every section of the galaxy. He ended with, "Are we done now? I got a small nuke in the other room that really oughta be watched. And by the way Peter.. This is a dumb idea.."

Peter continued down the hall, he set his mask's visual scanners to pick up on heat and other energy forms. They showed up like a bloom of color in the air and on the floor. Peter followed the trails, a few split off leading to other rooms. But he was focusing on the EMP signature, which showed up as cold blue. He supposed that the weapon was like a stun gun in some way, because every few meters there was a strong pickup in the energy output reading. Peter began jogging down the hall following the trail as it wound around the ship he came to a door and stopped. His mask indicated that the EMP signature was inside, along with five life forms.

He shrugged, if one of those lifeforms was Gamora he need to get in there quickly to save her. He kicked open the door.. Or at least he tried to.. THUNK!  
"OW! Dammit!"  
He grabbed the door handle, and opened the door, throwing it open in a weak attempt to save a little of his bad-ass entrance. He moved to the side of the doorway to avoid the laser blasts that melted the wall on the other side of the hallway. He spun around and into the room looking for Gamora as he did so. He found her tied to a chair in the back corner of the room, he fired at the Badoon who was raising his rifle to fire again. The bolt of blood red energy burned through the Badoon's chest. Peter dived forward, grabbing a table and flipping it over for cover as he landed. Other laser blasts hit the ground and walls around where he was. He heard one of the Badoon reloading, Peter moved up above the table and fired at the Badoon's face. He heard a brief shriek meaning that he hit his target.

That left two more in the room. He moved out from behind the table and fired one of his pistols at one target while firing at the other target with the other pistol. He misses one, but, hits the other, He spins around hoping that he's right and swings the butt of his pistol around. With a dull thump the pistol butt connects to the Badoon's head. The lizard stumbles and grabs at his head with his hand, Peter pushes the Badoon back and fires a blast at his chest.  
Peter deactivated his mask and stood there for a few seconds trying his best to look as heroic as possible. Then he realized it was pointless and stupid. He grinned sheepishly to himself and walked over to Gamora. He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out his Swiss Army Knife, He promised his grandpa he would never go anywhere without it. And he had kept his promise.

He cut through the ropes on Gamora's wrists and ankles. He put the knife away and tapped Gamora on the shoulder, "Hey Gams!..", she didn't move and he patted her on the cheek, "Psst! Hey, you awa-", Gamora's fist shot out and hit him right in the nose. He fell backwards with a yell bringing a hand to his nose. "Ow!... Gamora!" He checked his palm for blood and, surprisingly, there was none.  
Gamora stood up realizing what had happened and reached out to help Peter up, "Sorry Peter, It was a reflex reaction to being hit."  
"I didn't hit you Gams!, I patted you there's a difference.."  
"Not to my reflexes.." Gamora turned and walked to the other side of the room and picked up a small gun that had a very familiar look to it. Peter couldn't tell why it looked familiar it just did. Gamora looked at him, "This is the weapon that was used on me. It knocked out almost all my systems and stunned me at the same time. This was built to take out enhanced beings I want to get a closer look at it." She turned and started walking down the hall Peter followed, "This place is rigged to explode, Gamora and I don't know how much time we have left. So we need to hurry we can talk back on the Milano." The two walked down the hall, keeping an eye out for any attackers. Peter opened the access hatch in the wall and gestured for Gamora to go first. She glared at him and didn't move.  
Peter shrugged and climbed inside the tube, then began climbing up the ladder. He heard Gamora following him.

When they got back to the above deck after about two minutes of climbing. Peter was sweating and breathing heavily while Gamora was the perfect picture of calm, she looked at him, "You alright?"  
"Yeah, just that going up is harder than going down."  
She grinned slightly, "Not for me."  
Peter sighed, "Yeah, well, I don't have implants.", He stood up, "Let's go, Drax is probably waiting for us somewhere along the way."

The two began jogging at a slow pace down the hall they met Drax who was standing there in the hallway sharpening his knives. He looked up when he saw them approaching, "There you are, I was worried. The Badoon who calls himself Hiral told me to stay on the look out for you. We need to get to the pickup point he said that we have about ten minutes before this place explodes."  
Peter nodded, "Let's go."  
Suddenly there was a blast followed by a muffled explosion that shook the ground, causing the Guardians to stumble. Peter looked at the other two, "We have to get out of here now!" He started jogging down the hall Drax and Gamora followed. Another blast shook the ground and they all began running Gamora in front, followed by Drax then Peter.

They got to the main hanger Hiral and the other unconscious Badoon were waiting for them. Peter tapped the button on his earpiece. "Groot get us out of here NOW! Lock on to our signals and on the two Badoon life forms. We're in the main hanger!"  
"i AM Groot!" came the high pitched reply.  
Despite himself, Peter smiled, "Groot is getting us out of here. We just need to hold on for a little while."

Another explosion shook the ship alarms began going off, the lights flickered and blinked out. Peter switched his mask to night-vision and looked at the others Gamora was still standing where she was Drax was looking about, his hands on the hilts to his knives. Hiral was looking toward the main door into the hanger from the rest of the ship. Peter glanced over toward the main door. Badoon soldiers were moving along in the pitch dark room. Peter realized that, being reptilians, the Badoon must have natural night-vision. He also remembered something about snakes being able to sense body heat or something.. He didn't remember too well, it had been about twenty-eight years after all.  
He aimed at the leading Badoon and fired his pistol the bolt of energy lit up the room as it sped towards the advancing enemy. Gamora turned to face the enemy, shifting her position into a fighting stance. There was the familiar, but, still chill inducing, sound of Drax drawing his knives.  
Hiral moved toward Peter with the young Badoon slung over his shoulder, "There's another side hanger.. If we can make it there we can hold them off."

Peter frowned, thinking, Groot was probably almost there and they just had to wait for a while longer.. On the other hand.. The Badoon were nearly there as well. Peter turned to the others, "We're moving! Hiral says there's another hanger where it'll be easier to hold them off."  
Gamora glanced in the direction of the small army and spoke in a quiet voice, "He could be leading us into a trap Peter."  
Peter shook his head, "Rocket trusted him and that's good enough for me."

He turned and began following Hiral off to the side of the hanger. He looked back at the other two, they were following quickly behind him.  
The group ducked behind a few storage containers to avoid the lasers that were being fired at them. They made their way to the side of the room and stopped at a door. Hiral quickly opened the door and motioned for them to move inside.  
Peter hesitated for a few seconds, then moved into the room. Drax followed, then Gamora, Hiral turned and set the other Badoon on the floor. "The only way is for me to hold them off as long as I can. While you get to safety, Find Rocket he will be heading to an outpost station on the border of Nova territory. Find him quickly.. Something is wrong with him."  
Before anyone could react the Badoon closes the door.  
With a loud click the door locks into place.  
A muffled battle cry sounds followed by the brutal sounds of combat.  
Shrieks and the sound of shredding, tearing flesh the outside room went dead silent.

Peter hammered on the door, before Gamora pulled him back, "He made his choice Peter. If they send more down here and you keep banging on the door, we will be next."  
Peter sighed, "Yeah, I know. I just wish I could save everyone." A quiet burst of static fills Peter's ear piece startling him, "I am Groot?" Peter smiled briefly, "Groot, we moved to another side hanger it's just us and one other Badoon."  
Another explosion shook the ship, Peter looked at the others "Groot should be getting us out of here soon."  
His earpiece crackled and he heard, "I am Groot..", He sighed really wishing he could understand the tree creature. "Um, Okay?"  
He waited for a response, "Groot, buddy? Can you get us out of here now?", another explosion shook the ship the alarms began screaming out: "Catastrophic damage to internal power systems detected.. Please evacuate.."  
Peter yelled in his Comm "Groot get us out of here now!" He heard the tree creature, say something but it was covered up by another explosion. "Now! I don't care what's going on just get us the hell out of here."

Peter felt the cold, painful sensation of being disintegrated at the molecular lever and being transferred through space back to the ship. The first thing he notices are the alarms going off filling the ship with bright red light and shrill sound. Peter quickly moves to the cockpit and turns off the autopilot. He hands Groot to Drax, "Strap in, We gotta get going now if we're going to get out of minimum blast range fast enough." He strapped himself in and grabbed the throttle and steering controls. He looked back and yelled, "Every one ready?"  
Gamora answered, "Yes! Go!"

Peter began moving as fast as they could away from the ship behind them, The sensors began beeping and Peter looked at the console it indicated that a smaller ship much like the Milano was speeding away in the opposite direction. Peter figured it was just a few survivors who managed to escape the chaos. Peter waited for the sensors to give the all clear before jumping to warp right as the ship exploded in a bright ball of light, flame and debris..  
Peter thought about Hiral, He gave his life to protect the Guardians.. But he didn't have too. Peter wondered why Hiral did what he did.. Then he remembered about the young Badoon. "What the heck are we gonna do with him?"  
Peter backtracked and moved to where the other ion trail had been. He checked the data from the last time they were there and set a course following the smaller ion trail. It had faded away by this time but, Peter gripped the steering control, tighter, saying a quiet prayer to any god that was out there, that maybe they would arrive on time.

* * *

**Author's note: Sorry all, I've been busy with Real Life stuff. But I guess I some how found the time to write :) Anyway, Read and review. I might try a selection of short stories.. But I don't know I've never really ever done anything like that before. So... Anyway, I AM writing it's just going a lot slower then I would like. Thank you for your continued support and stuff.**

**Thanks, Read and Review.. Until next time :D**

**~RocketRaccoon18**


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

The silent alarms were what woke him up, he sat up in the dark room the red flashing light from the clock was the only illumination. In its dim light, he saw the Comm unit flashing on the table where he left it. He pressed the button, "Yeah, what's the problem?"  
"Sir, we've detected a small escape pod in our border-space. We hailed it, but we got no response. Sensors can't detect a life form at this range.. But we will be able to run scans of the pod in a few minutes. But, it is advisable that you are present for when we bring the pod on board."  
The Captain stood up and got himself ready for duty.  
There had always been something these past few months. It started with the news that Nova Prime had hired a bunch of ex-cons.. Well, more accurately, A thief, two thugs, an assassin and a maniac. After they had somehow stopped a terrorist by the name of Ronan. But most of that was likely rumor, Nova Prime wouldn't hire criminals.. Then the X.O.P. UltIra had lost contact with Xandar a few weeks ago. The station's technicians were trying to fix it but, it was difficult. The Head Engineer had caught a virus while on shore leave that, while harmless to his species, was deadly to a few of the others so he was in quarantine for a few weeks while the Bio-hazard teams made sure that no one else was infected. Then the fact that they were on the border meant they had to be on the lookout for anything suspicious.  
The Captain sighed, there was always something..

Captain James, Darius of the X.O.P UltIra walked to the Operating Deck of the station. He sighed and stopped at one of the Replicators, placing his mug in the dispensary. He pressed the button for the SynthCaff and waited as the thick black liquid filled the cup. He sighed, wishing that they had the newer model, it was faster and more energy efficient and it could replicate food as well as drinks. With the sound of a chime the Replicator signaled it was finished. James took the mug and sipped the liquid, "This stuff still don't taste right." he muttered, SynthCaff was supposed to taste, look, and smell like the drink Caffee, one that was very popular on Xandar and was common fare on most Multi-Species worlds. However, most of the time the Replicator produced a black liquid that was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike Caffee.

James walked down the hall, passing the other officers and civilians who lived and worked on the station. He pressed the button and called the lift, sipping the liquid he thought about his family back on Xandar, The last news stream from Xandar told that the city was being rebuilt and that the construction was going well. Most of the city had been destroyed after a courageous pilot forced the enemy ship down by flying his ship into the Dark Aster's bridge, He hoped they were alright..  
James got to the Operating Deck of the station and walked over to the operations console.  
"You said we've detected an escape pod? Je'lek?"  
Je'lek nodded, "Yes, Captain, we scanned the pod and there is one life form on board.. Though it's strange."  
"Strange how?"  
Je'lek turned to the console and pressed a button bring up the results of the scan:

Bio-Scan:  
Serial Number Detected: #89P13  
Species: Unknown/Unknown.  
Body Modifications: Skeletal, Muscular, Neural.  
Biological State: Unconscious.

James frowned, He had never heard of something that had been so heavily modified and survived, "Bring it aboard when it's in tractor beam range. Put it in landing bay three.", He sipped the SynthCaff, "Anything else?"  
Je'lek nodded, "Yes, sir.. We found this.. It's been on a loop." He closed the Bio-Scan window and opened up the communications window. He selected a file and played it.  
It was a series of animalistic growls followed by a series of short clicks, James thought it sounded familiar.. But it was hard to tell. The recording continued for a few seconds. The growls and clicks were separated by periods of silence that were spaced out almost randomly in the recording.  
There was a faint barking yelp followed by a thump, then the recording cut out.  
James frowned, the growls were strange but, that wasn't the strangest thing. The growls and clicks were in a sort of order..  
"Send the recording to my room, there's something about it.." He frowned, thinking about the sounds he had just heard, "Oh, contact me when the pod is brought on board, and have some food and more SynthCaff brought to me.." he added as he walked back to his room to review the morning reports and go over that recording again.

~Later~

James sighed and rubbed his eyes, he had been listening to the recording for the past hour and a half and suffice it to say the growling and chirping had given him a headache. He was annoyed, the recording was so damn familiar.. Why couldn't he figure it out? At first, he thought it might be the standard galactic distress code but when he translated it all he got were a few letters but, nothing legible. He groaned and stood up, stretching. He was about to forget the recording and just chalk it up to faulty equipment on the pod when, his Comm unit beeped. He pressed the button on his belt which activated the small microphone on the collar of his uniform.  
"This is Captain James, Go ahead."  
"Captain we have the pod on board, You need to see this."  
"On my way."  
He grabbed the recording unit, the tech nerds could probably figure it out, and walked out of his room he headed down the hall and took the lift to landing bay three. When he stepped out he saw that the Search-Team who dealt with this sort of stuff was on one side of the room a Medical Personal was working on treating the scratches, And were those bites?, on their arms. One of the men saw James and walked up to him, "The thing on board.. We can't grab it.. It's a feisty little critter. We would just stun it.. But we can't get near enough to buzz it. We tried.. It actually dodged out of the way of the stun stick. I had you called because I don't know what to do."  
James sighed, there was always something, "Where is the animal?"  
"It's in the living section of the pod.. You can go in, just don't try to grab it."  
James nodded, "Thank you." He walked into the pod, ducking through the small door. He looked around the pod feeling a little amazed at the mess there was.

The floor and walls of the pod were covered in small scratches. The drawers that usually held clothing and other supplies had been ripped from the wall. Food wrappers were scattered around the pod. The controls for the pod were what caught James' eye though. They had been ripped to pieces, there were circuit boards, wires, pieces of metal and parts of the pod all wired together on the center of the floor. It looked as if it had been frantically put together only to be abandoned.  
James looked in the living section of the pod, the bed had ripped to shreds, the bed's stuffing and clothes from the drawers along with the bed sheets were piled up in the corner of the bed and sitting in the middle of the pile was an animal.  
The fur on its body was a dark brownish grey. On its face around its dark brown eyes there was a band of black fur, this was highlighted by stripes of white fur on its muzzle and above its eyes. The animal's tail was covered in thick long fur that was colored in alternating black and brown rings. Overall the animal had a canine-ish look to it.  
The animal sat there staring at James growling faintly, James stared back and had the uncanny feeling that the animal assessing his weaknesses. He thought he saw a flickering intelligence behind the animal's eyes, but, it was probably just his imagination.  
James had an idea, he walked out of the living area, moving slowly so as not to startle the animal, and stepped out of the pod. He closed the door to the pod then walked over to one of the men who was waiting for him.  
"Get me some crackers from the mess hall and a low dosage tranquilizer from the Med Bay. I think I can get the animal out of the pod.."  
The man nodded and walked off to relay the order.  
James walked over to one of the crew members. "We need a pet carrier. I want you to put blankets, pillows, and whatever else you can find inside it."  
The man nodded and walked off to do as he was ordered.  
James sighed, "Today had been a weird one.", He thought, "And it was only.", He checked his time monitor it read 09:36 he sighed, "It was going to be a long day.."  
The men came back with things he needed to capture the animal. He placed the crackers inside the carrier and set the carrier inside the pod he turned to the Search crew, "Alright.. Now all we do is wait. It's an animal.. It'll get hungry eventually and it's obviously smart, so it'll figure out that if it wants the food it'll have to come and get it. Then when it does, it'll be out in a few minutes, then we can go in there, pick it up and bring it to the Med Bay." James sighed, "Then we can figure out what to do with it." He walked to the lift, "Call me when you have the animal in the Med Bay."

James pressed the button and took the lift to the Computer Lab. He handed the recording to the head technician, "This is something we picked up from an escape pod. I want you to listen to it, it's a message of some type. But I can't figure it out, the pattern is familiar, but I can't place it. If you figure it out, call me."  
He went to the Mess Hall to get something to eat. He had a sandwich earlier, but, he never finished it. Besides, it would be a while before the animal was in the carrier. He thought about the animal, It was very similar to his daughter's pet at least in body type. As far as it's coloring went, it was a very pretty animal. He figured that if the animal wasn't protected or anything he would give to his daughter.  
Alira loved animals, she always wanted more pets. Every time James was home, she would want to go to the pet store, "I just want to look at them.", she would say but, they usually picked one out anyway. Alira raised the animals and gave them to the shelters. Her reasoning was, "I love them, but other people might want to love them too." James never argued, he loved his daughter and she was a good girl always looking out for others.  
James was pulled from his thoughts by his Comm unit buzzing it was one of the Operations crew, "Sir?, Sorry to interrupt.. But, long range sensors have detected a small craft heading toward the station from the border."  
James grabbed one of the plates he placed a few vegetables and a sandwich on the plate. He tapped the Comm button on his belt, "I'll be there in a minute. What is their current speed?"  
"2.5 parsecs an hour. They will be here in about forty minutes."  
James took a bite from the sandwich, "Alright I'm making my way there now.", he walked out of the Mess Hall. Then his Comm buzzed again, "Sir, we caught the animal, We're taking it to the MED Bay now."  
"Understood." He tapped the activation button, "Call. Operations." He waited for a few seconds, "Operations?, I'll be stopping by the Med Bay first."  
"Understood Captain."  
He walked to the lift and took it down three floors to deck 5. He walked down the hall and into the MED Bay to find it mostly empty the only one was the doctor. Dr Rose Kathryn was in the side room working on a way to inoculate the species who were vulnerable to the virus. She was looking in a microscope at the moment and taking down notes  
James knocked on the side of the door frame, "Dr, Rose the search team is bringing in an animal and I want you to look it over."  
She nodded without looking up from, "Yeah Captain, I'll do that.. Just give me a minute" He smiled, Rose was one of those types who could only work on one project at a time. And since she usually had multiple projects going on at a time her office was a little chaotic but, it was an orderly chaos.  
She stopped writing and turned, "So, what were you saying?"  
"An escape pod was brought on board and we found a modified animal inside. I want you to take a look at it. Just check it out, I want to know where it came from."  
She nodded, "I'll do that." She turned back to the microscope and began taking notes again. James nodded, he knew she would get around to it. He turned when the door opened and the search crew brought in the carrier.  
Dr. Rose walked into the room, she was putting on a pair of sterile gloves, "Put the carrier on the examination table and leave the room, please." She watched as the men put the carrier on the white paper covered table, one of them moved to open the carrier door, "No.. Don't touch the animal.. You're not wearing gloves. And if you or the animal are carrying anything you might infect each other and the last thing I need is another outbreak at this point."  
The man, sighed, "Yeah sure.. Doc."  
"There you've done your job, Now you can go back to doing whatever is that you Search Crew do."  
The men quickly left the room and Rose turned to James, "I suppose you have to be here.. Just don't make any noise."

She opened the carrier and looked inside, then she pulled the animal out of the cage holding it under its arms and lay it on its back. She looked it over, "Well, It's humanoid and male." She looked at its chest parting the fur with her fingers, "Strange... There's metal imbedded in his chest. You said he was an enhanced being?" She gently grabbed its arm and moved it up watching as the metal contracted slightly, "Skeletal enhancements... Hmm." She turned on the bed's gravity regulators and switched them low enough to allow the animal to float gently above the surface of the bed. Dr. Rose pushed the animal so it spun gently in the air revealing its back.  
The skin on the animal's upper back between his shoulders was mostly made up of scar tissue. There were seven metal ports stood out from his skin, Dr. Rose gently touched one of the ports feeling the skin around them. The animal's paw twitched, clenching tightly, then slowly relaxing Dr. Rose frowned thoughtfully and grabbed an Imager-Ray it was a simple device that used sound waves and hardlight holograms to project images of internal organs. She turned it on and held the end over the animal's back an image of the animal's spine and surrounding musculature was slowly generated in the air. She stopped and turned off the Imager-Ray allowing the Med Bay's hologenerators to display the image. She turned and looked at the image moving it with her hands and peeling away layers one at a time.  
At first she was curious, then slowly with each layer her curiosity turned to horror then disgust , then pity. As she realized just what this creature must have been through. She turned back on the Imager-Ray and set to do a full body scan. The readout said it would take about an hour. She sighed, "Well, I've got a full body scan set up. So, we'll be able to see what he is in about an hour."  
James, who had remained silent throughout the examination nodded, "There's another craft approaching, they could be friends of the animal, they'll be here in about..", he checked his timepiece, "Thirty minutes.." he sighed.. "I guess we need to get a welcoming party together"

He turned and left the Med Bay leaving Dr. Rose with the strange animal. He walked to the lift and rode it to the Operating Deck. Je'lek interrupted him, "Sir the ship is hailing us."  
James sighed, "Drop that order and continue as is, Captain, out.", He turned to Je'lek, "Answer it." Je'lek pressed a button and the Operating Deck's main screen turned on.  
"This is Captain James, Darius of the Xandar Space Outpost UltIra state your name, rank and ship identification number."  
The man in the video feed was tall and shirtless he had several red tattoos on his greyish-blue skin, he looked closely at the camera, "Friend Quill... I think, I found the station's number."  
A mumble was heard from off camera and the tall man replied, "Because their Captain is talking with me."  
"Drax! You weren't supposed to call them yet.."  
"I'm sorry Quill, I thought you wanted me to call them."  
There was a sound of movement and another man sat down in front of the camera he took a moment to adjust the camera. James could tell that this man was the type who had very little to do with formalities or any sense of order. This was going to be an interesting conversation..  
"Hey there, sorry about Drax here.. He was supposed to find you not call. I wanted to make sure we were close enough.. Rocket said that our transmitter needed some work but, I guess he was wrong. Anyway, I'm Peter Quill but, you can call me Star-Lord. Uh, you met Drax and Gamora is tending to Groot. I think you've met Rocket.."  
James felt a surge of fear at these names, he knew who they were.. Well, except for the one who called himself Star-Lord which was a really dumb name he thought. He nodded, "What is your ship identification number."  
Star-Lord frowned, "I have it here somewhere." He stood up and moved out of the view of the camera. There was a sound of stuff being moved and a faint, "Dammit Rocket.. Why do you have to leave your weapons everywhere.."  
Star-Lord sat back down in front of the camera. He held a small card, "It's R112DH33. So, uh, we think you have one of our crew members on your station."  
James motioned for one of the crew to check the database for a ship with that number he nodded, "I see.. And why do you think that?"  
"Because we tracked his escape pod here."  
James frowned, "Your crew member is an animal?"  
Starlord frowned, "Well, yes, but no he's not really an animal.. It's hard to explain.."  
James sighed, "You have the clearance, You may board at dock 12."  
James cut the link and sat back in his seat, "Is the ship in the database?"  
The crew member nodded, "Yes.. Name: Milano. Affiliation: Nova Corp, Previously, The Ravagers."

James frowned, "The Ravagers.. hmm. We'll need to watch them carefully you know how Ex-cons can be." He stood up and motioned for three of the crew members to follow him. The group walked to the lift and took it down to the docks. The opened dock 12 and waited for the ship to dock. They saw the orange and blue ship moving in and land, The docking clamps locked onto the outer hull of the ship, the entrance ramp lowered and the three people walked over to them. James held out his hand to the one called Star-Lord, "Your animal friend is in the Med Bay. We have him sedated and he is being examined by our doctor." Star-Lord nodded, "We would like to see him.."  
"Of course follow me."

* * *

**Author's Note: Hello all, I know it's been a while. But, I'm back to writing now. I want to do a series of short stories involving these characters. Any suggestions would be helpful and appreciated. Also, Please read and review, comments are really helpful. **

**~RocketRaccoon18**


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